


The Temple of Athena

by SilverHeart09



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/F, Yaz and Thirteen having gay panics, and there was only one bed, thasmin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-04-09
Packaged: 2019-11-24 13:25:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 30,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18165764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverHeart09/pseuds/SilverHeart09
Summary: The Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yaz find themselves in 4th century Ancient Greece, where a number of bodies have been turning up on the hill beside the Parthenon, drained of all their blood.Can the fam find out who’s committing these murders and stop them? Will Yaz stop having a gay panic? Will everyone get sunburnt cause it’s Greece and they’re British? Read on and find out!





	1. The Adventure Begins

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! It's ya girl back with more multi-chapter fics. 
> 
> This story was inspired by Curse of the Pharaohs by maglex, please check out their stuff if you haven't already! 
> 
> Also, the timelines and the whole BC/AD thing confused me a bit so after a LOT of research I thiiiiiink I've got it right! 
> 
> There has been a lot of googling regarding history around this time period, I have been to Athens but it was a couple of years ago so please bare with any historical inaccuracies!
> 
> Please enjoy!

Yaz sneezed with such a ferocity that the Doctor jumped a good few feet backwards in surprise and Ryan recoiled in fright with a high-pitched shriek.

‘Bless you,’ Graham said, not even looking up from his newspaper. He’d taken offence at the lack of chairs in the TARDIS console room and had dug an old red and white striped beach chair out of storage, sitting back in it with his newspaper and a cup of tea. 

‘If you’re not feeling well we can take a day off,’ the Doctor said, standing in front of Yaz and dithering anxiously. ‘I don’t want you making yourself worse.’

‘I’m fine!’ Yaz protested with an indignant sniff. ‘It’s just the Sheffield weather given me the sniffles, just need some sunshine and a nice hot climate.’

‘Sounds like a plan to me, Doc,’ Graham said, looking up from his paper. The paper wasn’t even from his century, but he’d discovered a stack of them in the TARDIS library and was making his way through them. When the Doctor discovered what he was doing she’d immediately hidden all the papers from his future, and had only left the old ones out. The current newspaper in Graham’s hands was from 1867. 

‘Yeah, that sounds well cool!’ Ryan agreed. ‘Somewhere hot and sunny. I love it. Good shout, Yaz.’

The Doctor grinned at Yaz and headed back towards her console, fingers moving nimbly over her controls as she flicked a lever here and pressed a switch there and did some weird thing that looked as though she was pulling an organ’s stop-knobs. The ship lurched to one side and Graham was almost knocked out of his beach chair, Yaz gripping a crystalline pillar tightly.

‘Sorry!’ the Doctor called. ‘Almost there, you’re going to love it.’

Despite her head cold and the sneeze that Yaz could once again feel building up inside her, she was excited at the prospect of a new adventure. A world outside the TARDIS doors previously unknown and undiscovered by anyone from her time filled her with a sense of pride and happiness like nothing she’d ever felt before. She’d watched the Doctor get drunker and drunker while her alien friend had argued with Kant about philosophy (and subsequently succeeded in drinking him under the table), she’d knocked down a part of the Berlin Wall, she’d danced with Eliza Hamilton at one of George Washington’s extravagant parties and had been kissed by Sir Lancelot at Camelot (who knew those myths were based on fact?). 

In short, Yaz was loving life as part of team TARDIS and hoped her time with the Doctor never ended. She wanted to see everything this mad, blonde alien could offer her and the sound of the TARDIS engines had become an anthem to their next bonkers adventure. 

The TARDIS performed one final lurch, then everything was still and stable once more.

‘Bit of a bumpy landing!’ the Doctor said, an apologetic face scronch wrinkling her features as her eyes gleamed.

‘A bit?’ Graham protested, covered in tea. 

‘You’ll have to change anyway, Graham!’ the Doctor exclaimed. ‘It’s hot out there, almost 36 degrees. Make sure you put suncream on. And a hat! Very important, hats. I look good in a hat, I think. Or I always used to anyway.’

‘Where are we, Doctor?’ Yaz said, her cold forgotten as she almost burst with excitement.

‘You wanted somewhere hot and sunny, I delivered,’ the Doctor said with a sly smile. ‘Take a look.’

‘Yaz went first last time!’ Yaz heard Ryan protesting to the Doctor as she paused with her hands on the TARDIS doors, allowing herself a small moment to hold this feeling in her heart. The unknown, the brand new experience that none of her friends or family back home would ever get to have.

Well, apart from the family inside these four blue walls of course.

Yaz took a deep breath, and opened the doors.

The heat smacked into her like a wall and she blinked, temporarily blinded as she tentatively put one foot on solid ground. She was dressed for winter in Sheffield and she could feel the sweat forming underneath her clothes before she’d even fully emerged from the TARDIS.

As her eyes adjusted to the bright glare of the sun, she noticed a startling blue sea stretched out in front of her as far as the eye could see. The TARDIS had parked on a hill, a gentle grassy slope leading down to a beach below her. In the distance were great white temples, and she could hear laughter and the sound of talking carried to her on the breeze. Yaz closed her eyes and filled her lungs with the fresh sea air, feeling it invigorating her and banishing her cold far away where it couldn’t bother her anymore.

‘Not bad, right?’ the Doctor said, leaning against the doorframe. Despite the heat she didn't seem uncomfortable in her coat, and she smiled happily at the expression on Yaz’s face. 

‘This is amazing,’ Yaz said, her grin wide. 

Ryan bounded out of the TARDIS and nodded in approval. ‘Oh yeah, now that’s what I’m talking about. Nice one, Doctor. Excellent choice.’

‘Are those temples?’ Graham asked, poking his head out of the door wearing the giant shades that he’d initially borrowed from the Doctor on Desolation. ‘They look very Roman to me.’

‘Not far off, Graham!’ the Doctor said, clearly impressed. ‘They’re Greek. We’re in Greece. Athens, to be exact. Although I can’t blame you for thinking they were Roman, the Romans basically nicked the Greek’s temple-building ideas. Look behind you.’

The three humans peered around the side of the TARDIS and saw a massive temple stood on a hill, the city in a valley below it. 

‘Is that the Parthenon?’ Yaz asked, agog.

‘Yep! Looks relatively new… what year is this?’

The Doctor bent down and plucked a blade of grass from the ground, chewing on it thoughtfully.

‘My old cat used to do that, then he’d puke it back up all over the carpet,’ Graham said, lips curling in disgust as the Doctor swallowed her impromptu snack.

‘It is new! Sort of. It’s 343 BC, that temple is almost 100 years old.’ 

‘It was built for the Goddess Athena, right, Doc?’ Graham said.

‘You are on a roll today, Graham!’ she enthused. ‘Now come on. We all need to get changed before we boil. I’m sure I’ve got some himations lying around somewhere.’ 

* * *

A himation, Ryan soon discovered, turned out to be a thin piece of cloth that you wore over a chiton, an equally thin piece of cloth that covered barely anything and resembled a dress.

‘Looking good gang!’ the Doctor said with a grin, hiding her bum bag under her chiton and tucking her sonic screwdriver, psychic paper, TARDIS key, and several snacks into it. 

‘We made these in school, d’you remember, Ryan?’ Yaz asked, swooshing in her long dress. ‘Out of mum’s old sheets.’

‘Vaguely,’ Ryan admitted. ‘Do we have to wear these, Doctor? We don’t usually have to dress up.’

‘Unless you want to start a riot, yes we do. Plus it’s waaaay too hot to wear synthetic fabrics, these will keep you lovely and cool. Just make sure -’

‘- we wear suncream. I know, Doc,’ Graham said, already slathering up his face in the stuff, paying extra attention to his ears and nose.

‘You better cover your scalp, Doctor,’ Yaz said, finding a thin scarf made of a gauzy material and placing it neatly over the Doctor’s head. ‘I don’t want you burning.’

‘Aw, always looking out for me, Yaz,’ the Doctor said with a soft smile, and Yaz felt her heart flip in her chest.

The Doctor was wearing a long chiton that went down to her feet, and had a himation secured loosely over the top, leaving one of her shoulders bare and exposed to the elements. She looked stunningly beautiful, almost like a goddess herself, and Yaz was having a hard time taking her eyes off of her, something Ryan clearly picked up on when he gave her a nudge and a wink.

‘Make sure Yaz puts some suncream on that shoulder, Doctor!’ he called as he rummaged through a pile of sandals, trying to find a pair that matched.

‘Ooh yes, could you, Yaz?’ the Doctor asked, looking pleadingly at her friend. 

‘Of course,’ Yaz replied, taking the bottle from Graham and squirting a generous amount into her palm, rubbing the thick cream all over the Doctor’s exposed shoulder and back, trying to ignore the feel of taut muscles and smooth creamy skin beneath her hands. 

‘You sure you’re feeling alright, Yaz?’ the Doctor asked, placing a blessedly cool hand over Yaz’s forehead when she was done. ‘You’ve gone pink and you feel ever so hot.’

Ryan chortled behind them and Yaz flushed even pinker.

‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘Just need some fresh air. We ready to go?’

She was already heading towards the doors before the Doctor had a chance to respond, and the alien exchanged a concerned look with her two male friends, who only shrugged, before following Yaz to Ancient Greece.

It was still hot outside but there was a cool breeze drifting up from the sea and the four of them walked amicably together as they headed down the hill into the centre of the busy city. They passed numerous others, all dressed the same as them, but the Greeks paid them no heed and Ryan felt glad he was wearing the same style of clothing, secretly enjoying the chance to dress up.

He did start to feel a little disconcerted when a few Athenians started looking him up and down and smirking, a group of women batting their eyelashes at him.

‘Ere, Doc,’ he whispered quietly. ‘This isn’t going to be like Alabama, right?’

‘Nah,’ the Doctor replied reassuringly. ‘This is the 4th Century! You’ll be viewed as exotic.’

‘Ooh might finally get a date, Ryan!’ Graham said encouragingly, and Yaz laughed.

The cobbled streets of Athens were full of carts and trading stalls, and the Doctor picked them up a bag of olives which they munched happily as they made their way through the markets into a large square lined with trees. There were numerous groups of people draped over the steps or sat alongside the fountains and Graham quickly managed to bagsy them a spot under a tree, stretching his legs out on the ground.

‘This is amazing, Doc,’ he thanked her. ‘I’m loving this.’

‘Ancient Greece was one of my favourite topics at school,’ Ryan admitted. ‘Especially the stuff about Hercules.’

The Doctor scoffed. ‘Full of himself he was. I beat him in an arm wrestle once you know, never lived it down.’

They sat there for a while, talking to each other and enjoying each other’s company, but Graham noticed that as the sun went down the square began to empty rather quickly.

‘I thought Greeks were all about the party lifestyle?’ he said, confused. ‘Where did everyone go?’

‘Not sure…’ the Doctor said, looking around thoughtfully. ‘It’ll be a bit of a trek getting back to the TARDIS though and the sun has almost set. Shall we find somewhere to stay?’

Finding somewhere to stay proved problematic as all the inns they came across were full, and Graham was starting to worry they’d have to sleep outside, or risk a trek back to the TARDIS in the dark, when they came across a couple hurrying along down the street they were on.

‘Excuse me!’ the Doctor called politely. ‘I don’t suppose you’d happen to know if there’s anywhere around here to stay, do you? We seem to have left it a bit late.’

‘You have nowhere to stay?’ the woman asked, surprised. ‘But surely you know about the incidents? It’s not safe to be on the streets at night anymore.’

‘The incidents?’ the Doctor asked, confused, and Yaz felt a ball of excitement start to form in her belly at the prospect of a new mystery to solve. 

‘Is it just the four of you?’ the man asked, and Ryan nodded. 

‘Yeah, just us. Why isn’t it safe at night?’

The man and woman exchanged a brief glance, before gesturing for the four travellers to follow them. ‘You’d better stay with us,’ the woman said. ‘We have spare rooms for you.’

‘Ta very much!’ Graham said cheerily, and the four of them followed the couple down the street at a rather urgent pace, the only sounds being the slap of their sandals against the ground.

* * *

The couple lived in a quiet little grove not far from the market and busy hub of the city, and their house was sparsely decorated but still homely and warm. It was dark inside and the man went round lighting candles and oil lamps while the woman closed the wooden shutters and secured them tightly, gesturing for their guests to sit on small wooden chairs in their little sitting room.

‘I’m Calliope, and this is my husband Alexandros,’ Calliope said, pouring them all small glasses of wine and passing them round. ‘You’re most welcome in our home.’

‘Thank you for taking us in!’ the Doctor said. ‘We didn't realise how dark it was getting. I’m the Doctor, and this is Ryan, Yaz and Graham.’

‘What fascinating names,’ Alexandros said curiously. ‘Where are you from?’

‘We’re from Britain,’ Graham said, then he turned to look at the Doctor. ‘Is that right? We’re not enemies or anything are we?’

‘Albion, to you lot,’ the Doctor corrected him quickly.

‘Ah! You have travelled a long way indeed,’ Alexandros said. ‘I heard talk of some tin mines in Albion from one of the merchants in the harbour, such fascinating stories I heard. What brings you to Athens?’

‘We’re on holiday,’ Ryan said cheerily. ‘We heard about the hospitality of the Greeks and wanted to see it for ourselves. Also, Yaz had the sniffles.’

‘The sniffles?’ Calliope said, confused. 

Yaz chose that moment to let out another massive sneeze, and Calliope jumped to her feet. 

‘Oh my poor dear, you sound dreadful. Please excuse me while I make up your beds, I won’t be a moment.’ 

Once Calliope had left the room, the Doctor shuffled over to Alexandros and fixed him with a beady look. 

‘So, these “incidents” you’ve been having, please tell me more.’

‘They are not suitable for the ears of women,’ Alexandros said, clearly uncomfortable. ‘Truth be told, they are terrifying even to the ears of men.’

‘That’s a strong word,’ Graham said. ‘And don’t worry about the Doc, she loves this sort of thing.’

‘Surely not!’ Alexandros said, looking in fright at the Doctor, who in turn glared at Graham.

‘What my friend  _ meant  _ to say,’ the Doctor said. ‘Was that I always try to help where I can. Something has clearly got you lot running scared, can you tell me what’s going on here?’

Alexandros looked around him, as though checking he wasn’t being watched by anything sinister lurking in the shadows. 

‘It comes at night,’ he whispered, and the Doctor gave Ryan a soft bat on the arm when the younger man whispered  _ ‘that’s the name of a horror film.’  _

‘What does?’ the Doctor asked leaning forwards, her eyes wide and her body positively vibrating with excitement.

‘No-one has ever seen it,’ Alexandros said. ‘But in the morning, when we go to the great temple of Athena to pray, there are bodies left on the hillside.’

Ryan pulled a face. 

‘Whose bodies?’ Graham asked.

‘Athenians,’ their host said. ‘Neighbours, friends. Every morning we find their bodies on the hill.’

‘Dead, I’m presuming?’ Ryan asked, and Alexandros nodded.

‘How did they die?’ the Doctor asked, and their host shook his head in horror.

‘In a most  _ unnatural  _ way. All of the blood had been completed drained from their bodies.’

‘How? And by what?’ the Doctor asked, but Calliope re-entered the room and Alexandros stopped speaking. 

‘Your rooms are ready,’ his wife said, and she smiled gently. ‘Although I think your friend would be happy staying in the chair.’

The Doctor, Graham and Ryan turned to look at Yaz, who was fast asleep in her chair, slouched at an angle that would surely prove uncomfortable in the morning. 

‘We better get her to bed before she hurts her neck,’ Graham said with a chuckle. 

‘Graham, Ryan, your rooms are down this corridor,’ Calliope said, motioning with her arm. ‘My husband will show you to them. Doctor, yours and Yaz’s room is next to mine. I’ll take you.’

‘Perfect. Get a good nights kip, and we’ll chat more in the morning,’ the Doctor said, standing up and scooping Yaz out of her chair and into her arms as though she weighed nothing at all, prompting impressed looks from all occupants of the small house.

Apart from Graham, who’d seen the Doctor single handedly carry a king-sized mattress up his stairs as though it weighed the same as a bag of feathers. 

The three men left the room, and the Doctor followed Calliope into a small room with a window closed with wooden shutters. It was dark in the room without any natural light, but there was a candle on a small table next to the bed that lit the room in flickering shadows.  

‘I hope you Albions don’t mind sharing,’ Calliope said anxiously, indicating the small bed in the corner of the room. ‘This is my daughter’s bedroom. She is away in Rhodes at the moment, visiting family.’

‘This is perfect, and thanks again for taking us in on such short notice,’ the Doctor said, carefully laying the still sleeping Yaz down on the bed. 

‘You came here to witness first hand the hospitality of the Greeks,’ Calliope said with a smile. ‘I would hate to disappoint you. Goodnight, Doctor.’ 

She left the room and the Doctor carefully opened one of the shutters, peering outside. 

The window looked out onto a small courtyard with a fountain in the centre. With no light pollution the stars overhead were dazzling, and the Doctor realised she could see the Parthenon on its hill in the distance. It seemed quiet and still up there, nothing sinister about it at all. The moonlight shone down and reflected off its marble columns, casting the whole thing in a shimmering white light. 

‘Doctor?’ Yaz mumbled sleepily from the bed, and the Doctor looked over to see her friend blinking in confusion, sitting up and rubbing her tired eyes. ‘How did I get in here?’

‘You travelled via Doctor Airlines,’ the Doctor said with a grin, sitting next to her. ‘Still feeling a bit rough?’

‘A bit.’ 

Yaz let out a massive yawn and looked around their small room. ‘Cosy in here, isn’t it? We sharing?’

‘You know I don’t sleep much,’ the Doctor replied, getting up to close the shutters; just in case. 

‘Well you can’t sleep on the floor,’ Yaz protested, already shuffling up against the wall to give her friend some space to lie down.

The Doctor smiled softly and unclipped her himation, folding it neatly and leaving it on a wooden stool in the corner. She lay down next to her friend and wriggled a little before finally settling on her back with an arm behind her head, looking up at the stone ceiling. The bed was tiny, barely the size of a single, and it was impossible to avoid touching the other person. Yaz didn't mind though, although she was sure the Doctor must have been able to hear the thumping of her heart in her chest at the close proximity of the woman she was definitely crushing on. 

‘Did I miss anything interesting?’ Yaz asked, curling beside her as politely as she could, already half asleep again.

‘I’ll tell you in the morning,’ the Doctor said gently. ‘Get some rest, Yasmin.’

The use of her full name earned the Doctor a stuck out tongue from Yaz, but she was asleep in seconds and the Doctor blew out their little candle and stayed awake in the dark, listening to the sounds of the wind outside.

  
  



	2. The Doctor loves ducks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who's commented and left kudos! I'm so glad you're all enjoying it so far 😍
> 
> And MASSIVE THANK YOUS to thoteenthdoctor (also Ginoodle on Tumblr, check out her amazing artwork!) for her help, ideas and advice with all things Ancient Greece! ❤️❤️

When Yaz woke up her head still felt a little foggy, but she was warm and comfortable. There was a weight across her waist and she could hear movement outside the little window; the sounds of birds chirping good morning to each other and voices from the markets over the roof of the little house, the banging of wooden wheels on cobbled streets and shouting and laughing.

Something made a sound next to her and Yaz felt a pressure against her cheek. She slowly moved her head to find the Doctor, fast asleep, pressed against her side with her arm slung across Yaz’s waist. Yaz wouldn’t be surprised if she’d done it just so she had something to hold onto. The bed was so small that Yaz was amazed she hadn’t rolled off in the night with the amount of wriggling she did normally. 

She’d been having the weirdest dream. In it, she and the Doctor had been sat on her sofa in her parent’s flat watching rubbish TV together. Her family wasn’t around, neither were Ryan and Graham, and they’d been sat close to each other, a blanket over their legs. It was night outside and the stars were brighter in the Sheffield sky than she’d ever seen them, no light pollution or clouds spoiling their view.

‘Isn’t it beautiful?’ the Doctor had said with a soft smile, and Yaz had nodded. The interior of her flat had gone now, fading away into the nighttime sky, and it was just her and the Doctor floating together with the whole of time and space at their fingertips. 

‘Beautiful like you,’ Yaz had said, and she’d closed the space between them to kiss her friend. 

Except just before their lips touched, the Doctor had dissolved and floated away in the form of golden dust, leaving Yaz alone in space still reaching out for her. 

Yaz would be lying to herself if she said she didn't have feelings for the Doctor. The casual smiles and gentle brushes of their hands at the TARDIS consoles were getting more frequent now, and Yaz knew that the pounding of her heart in her ears and the flushing of her skin wasn’t due to excitement alone. She had fallen for the Doctor, hard, and she wasn’t sure what to do with her feelings apart from let them grow and grow inside of her until one day, perhaps sooner rather than later if the Doctor snuggled into her any more than she already was, she’d explode and there would be a horrible messy situation that would end in tears and heartbreak.

_ Although,  _ Yaz pondered as she carefully ran her fingers through the ends of the Doctor’s hair, the blonde strands fanned out across the pillow,  _ maybe it’s worth taking a risk on.  _ The Doctor had never outright told Yaz how she felt about her but equally it wasn’t as though she’d discouraged the fleeting smiles or hand holding or hugs that seemed to go on for a second too long. Yaz had spent many a night with the Doctor sat reading on the sofa or sat on the roof of the blue box or swimming together in the massive pool when the boys had gone to bed, and she felt that those moments had only made them grow closer together and left room for something more; like an ellipsis or a question mark at the end of a sentence. 

The Doctor leaned into her touch and Yaz felt a pang in her chest. She was so fed up with what if’s, maybe it was time to be brave and take the plunge. 

The Doctor made what Yaz could only describe as the most adorable snuffling sound she’d ever heard in her life and she stilled her movements in the blonde’s hair, allowing the short strands to fall back to the pillow. The tip of the Doctor's nose was pink from where she’d caught the sun and Yaz could see her eyes flickering from side to side under her lids, her lips contorting into a frown as she clutched at Yaz a little tighter, her safe harbour in the storm of her dreams. 

A knock sounded on the door and the Doctor woke up with a start, throwing herself upright and almost falling off the bed in the process. Clearly she hadn’t been planning on sleeping, and was almost as surprised as Yaz had been to find herself doing exactly that.  

‘Huh? Wasgoingon?’

‘Can I come in?’

Graham poked his head round the door and grinned at them. 

‘Well you two look squished. Did I wake you up? Sorry. Calliope says breakfast is ready, and they’ve found another body on the hill.’

‘Wait, a what?’ Yaz said, confused, and the Doctor stood up and stretched her arms high above her head, Yaz already missing the warm comfort of their bodies pressed together. 

‘Thanks Graham, I’ll bring Yaz up to speed.’

Graham closed the door and the Doctor flung open the wooden shutters, letting the early morning light spill in through the window. Her chiton was crinkled, she had sunburn on her shoulder and her hair was a mess but she was still as beautiful as ever, and Yaz found herself unable to do anything but watch her in awe as she said good morning to the birds, her eyes shining as they caught the sun. 

‘Come on, Yaz,’ she said, turning away from the window and reattaching her himation. ‘Lots to do today. Seems the Parthenon is being used as a dumping ground for bloodless bodies, we better get up there and have a look. I’m trying really hard to not think about vampires, but secretly I’m hoping it is. I met vampires once you know! Well, sort of. Giant fish people really. In Venice! Can you imagine.’

She inspected her reflection in the sheet of polished metal that served as Calliope’s daughter’s mirror and managed to pat down her messy hair into something more respectable and less  _ I literally just rolled out of bed. _

She paused at the door and turned back to Yaz, noting her companion was quieter than usual and not her usual bouncy self. She frowned at Yaz, holding out a hand as though she expected Yaz to take it, although the other woman was still in bed a good few feet away, and her expression went soft as she smiled gently. 

‘You feeling better, by the way?’

‘Much,’ Yaz said, standing up and rolling her shoulders, feeling the ache and creak of her joints as she stretched. Her vision blurred for a moment at the sudden transition from lying to standing but the Doctor didn't seem to notice and Yaz frowned at her reflection and the birds nest of her hair, undoing her plaits and finger-combing the long strands. 

‘Good.’ The Doctor grinned at her. ‘Also, you talk in your sleep.’

‘Wait,  _ what?’  _ Yaz said, her friend already leaving the room.

_ What on earth did I say?  _ Yaz thought anxiously, remembering her dream.  

* * *

 

Breakfast was freshly cooked bread, figs and olives served in the little courtyard outside. It was still early, perhaps around 7am, but it was already hot and the sunshine was glorious, bathing the five of them in soft light. Graham and Ryan were already happily tucking in when the Doctor and Yaz arrived, and Ryan gave Yaz a suggestive look as she pinned her hair against her head, the woman responding with a glare. 

‘I apologise for my husband not being here to join us,’ Calliope said, serving them wine. ‘He’s a fish merchant and he’s gone to the harbour to make preparations for the festival.’

‘Festival? What festivals that then?’ Graham asked.

‘Why the Dionysia of course,’ Calliope said, looking confused. ‘Is that not why you’re here? It seems quite a coincidence if you have arrived in the city during the festival without realising.’

‘Oh yeah course it is,’ Graham quickly backtracked. ‘I just… forgot what it was called.’

‘Huh,’ Calliope didn't seem to believe him but the Doctor quickly managed to steer them away before Graham had the opportunity to put his foot in it again. 

‘Do you know anything about what happened this morning? With the body on the hill?’ the Doctor asked, and Calliope made a face.

‘That is hardly conversation for the breakfast table.’

‘Us Albions are really nosy,’ Ryan said. ‘We’re just curious is all. Do you know who the person was? So we can pay our respects to their family.’

‘His name was Belen,’ Calliope said. ‘But I would hold off on paying your respects at the moment. Belen’s father, Aegeus, is one of the city’s Archons and he has been known to have quite a temper. I don’t think a visit from foreigners would go down very well at such an emotional time.’

‘Of course, quite right,’ the Doctor said thoughtfully. ‘Where does he live, this Aegeus? Only so we know to avoid him.’

Calliope looked confused but she gave them directions and then stood, adjusting her chiton. 

‘I must assist in preparations for the festival,’ she said. ‘Please excuse me. You are welcome to stay for as long as you like, I will bring back some fish for dinner this evening.’

She left the courtyard and the three humans turned eagerly to the Doctor, who was chewing on a piece of bread absentmindedly.

‘Archon?’ Ryan asked, confused.

‘Chief magistrate,’ the Doctor replied. ‘Archon literally means  _ ruler.  _ Noble by birth. He’s probably fabulously wealthy. Won’t be easy to get to and probably best to avoid.’ 

‘So? What’s the plan?’ Graham asked. ‘Cause I’m assuming we’re going to poke around in Aegeus’s house?’

‘Well obviously,’ the Doctor said. ‘I want to get a good look at Belen’s body.’

‘It’s vampires right? It’s gotta be vampires,’ Ryan said excitedly. ‘Like proper, Dracula style vampires.’

‘Dracula wasn’t around in Ancient Greece,’ Yaz said exasperated. ‘And there are other ways you can drain the blood from someone’s body without it being a vampire.’

‘Alexandros said they were laid out in a most  _ unnatural  _ way,’ the Doctor mused. ‘That doesn’t sound like conventional murder, although Yaz is right in that there are other ways to drain the blood from a body.’

She rummaged around in the bum bag she still had hidden under her chiton and pulled out a small bottle of suncream, passing it round.

‘Right then gang, suncream up and we’ll head to Aegeus’s house, see if we can do a little digging.’

‘On a more positive note, are we going to get to go to the festival?’ Graham asked as he smeared suncream onto his face. ‘Cause I remember learning about the Dionysia festival at school and it sounded like a right laugh.’

‘Anything to do with Dionysus usually is,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘Worse hangovers I’ve ever had in my life I’ve gotten from him.’

* * *

It was cooler outside, the sun not yet fully risen, but it was still hot enough that Graham felt beads of sweat forming on his forehead as they made their way through the streets.

It was already busy, carts and barrels being pushed, or rolled, along the cobbles and children ducking in and out of houses and around people, shouting and playing together. The hustle and bustle reminded Yaz of Sheffield city centre and she found herself walking side by side with the Doctor, happily smiling at the festivities around her. 

‘You’re looking brighter,’ the Doctor said with a grin, tucking her arm through Yaz’s. ‘Good snooze?’

‘Yeah, considering,’ Yaz replied, thinking of her dream. 

‘Considering what?’ the Doctor asked, and Yaz felt a lump form in her throat. 

_ Considering I was dreaming about you, considering I was right next to you, considering you were holding me this morning, considering I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. _

‘Considering you wriggle, a lot,’ Yaz said instead with a shrug and a smile.

‘You were chatting away to yourself!’ the Doctor countered. ‘Great fun to listen to, don’t know what you were dreaming about. You were talking about wanting an army of ducks at one point.’

Yaz didn't remember dreaming about wanting an army of ducks, but considering her dreams usually faded quickly away she wasn’t surprised. She barely remembered any of her dreams, but she wasn’t surprised this particular one had stuck with her. 

_ Beautiful like you. _

‘Did I say anything else?’ Yaz asked cautiously, and the Doctor raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

‘Well you called someone beautiful, but I’m assuming you were talking about one of your ducks. I love ducks, brilliant animals. We don’t have ducks where I’m from and the first time I ever saw one I was so excited.’

Fortunately for Yaz, who at that point wanted the ground to open up and swallow her, Graham appeared at their side; pointing to a house at the end of the street. It was grand and encircled a large courtyard filled with trees and fountains, mosaics fitted into the ground. It was a far cry from Calliope and Alexandros’s small home and the owner was clearly a person of wealth and influence. 

‘I think we’re here, Doc,’ he said, and the Doctor nodded her agreement.

‘Alright. We need a plan,’ the Doctor said, pulling them into a narrow side street. ‘I’m assuming they will have brought Belen’s body to his father’s house to get it ready for burial. I just need a quick look, and maybe a buzz with the sonic, to decide if we’re dealing with a human murderer, or an alien murderer.’

‘Then what?’ Ryan asked. ‘What if it’s alien?’

‘These people are all being found on the Parthenon,’ the Doctor said, brow furrowed. ‘It must be linked somehow? We need to get up there and have a look around.’

‘You would have thought that if people knew dead bodies were turning up at the temple at night they’d stay away from it!’ Ryan said. 

‘Excellent point, Ryan,’ the Doctor agreed. ‘Hopefully we’ll know more when I get a look at the body.’

‘And how are you going to do that?’ Graham asked. ‘You heard what Calliope said. This bloke Aegeus has got a bit of a temper and he has just lost his son, I doubt he’s going to let us in when we tell him we want to poke around at the body.’

‘Easy,’ the Doctor said. ‘We’re going to break in. And by “we” I mean me and Yaz. We can pretend to be servants if we’re spotted, the presence of two men will be harder to explain. We’ll meet you at the spot we were at yesterday, under the tree in the square. Stay out of trouble.’

‘Trouble?’ Graham protested. ‘We’re not the ones about to break into some rich bloke’s house!’

‘We’ve got this,’ the Doctor said. ‘Now come on, we’d better get a shift on.’

* * *

If you told Yaz when she first started out on her journey as a police officer that it would one day lead to her breaking into the house of a nobleman with an alien in  _ actual  _ Ancient Greece she would probably have told you to jog on.

Except, as it often was with the Doctor, the impossible seemed to be exactly what they were doing.

Actually getting into the courtyard in the centre of Aegeus’s home was relatively easy, all things considered. The Doctor had nabbed two long pieces of cloth from a cart when the vendor wasn’t looking and the two women had wrapped them around their heads as an impromptu hood, keeping their faces hidden as they crossed the street and made their way towards the house.

‘Looks like a delivery,’ the Doctor mumbled when they came in view of a massive cart pulled by two strong horses, loaded high with baskets and crates being unloaded by who Yaz presumed were the household staff. ‘We’ve chosen a good day for it. Grab a crate and follow the rest of them.’

Yaz and the Doctor took a small crate each and followed the servants round the side of the house and in through a small door that led to the kitchens, where the crates and boxes were being piled in a corner of the massive room. 

The servants put down their loads and turned to go back to the cart for more, Yaz already following, but the Doctor grabbed her hand and tugged her away through another door that led to a narrow staircase leading upwards.

‘Keep your head down,’ the Doctor advised her as they made their way up the marble steps and into the house’s atrium. There were mosaics in here also and a magnificent water feature was in the centre of the room, water pouring from the mouth of a lion. They heard male voices and footsteps approaching and the Doctor grabbed Yaz and ducked behind a pillar, listening intently.

‘Most unnatural indeed,’ one of the voices was saying. ‘I have no explanation for it. We must all pray to the Goddess to cleanse us of this curse. Only her love and forgiveness can save us now.’

‘What shall we tell Archon Aegeus?’ the other voice asked. 

‘We are men of science,’ the first voice replied. ‘Yet there are no words I can offer the Archon that would soothe his mind of this most evil deed, other than I do not believe his son suffered at the end. Indeed, there are no defensive marks upon him at all, only the wounds on his neck.’

The Doctor’s eyes widened in surprise and Yaz knew she was thinking about vampires again. 

‘We shall tell him his son died as a result of the imbalance of the humours,’ the voice continued again. ‘Blood, specifically.’

‘I wonder what Hippocrates would make of all this,’ the other voice mused as the footsteps passed by them and the two mysterious men left the atrium.

‘What do we do now?’ Yaz asked, trying to hide the panic creeping into her voice and the thump of her heart at the sensation of the Doctor’s body pushing her back against smooth marble. Yaz realised her hands had immediately gone to the Doctor’s waist and they were now front-to-front against the pillar, the Doctor’s leg in between Yaz’s. The Doctor turned to speak to her and paused, perhaps realising how close they were to one another. Her eyes dropped to Yaz’s lips and Yaz felt her throat go dry as she swallowed nervously, a familiar feeling of desire starting to make itself known in the centre of her body. Then the Doctor pulled back and the moment was broken.

‘We find Belen’s body,’ the Doctor said. ‘Those two were doctors by the sound of it, or what passes for doctors nowadays. They came from this way, lets go.’

She grabbed Yaz’s hand and pulled her urgently across the floor, their footsteps quiet on the marble and mosaic ground as they ducked into the room the two doctors had just left, and Yaz’s heart plummeted into her stomach.

Laid out in front of them on a table, covered in a white sheet, was Belen.

The Doctor was already carefully pulling the wooden door closed and tugging her sonic out from her bum bag, the instrument gripped tightly in her hand as she bent over the young man’s body.

He was thin and athletically built, and Yaz would have put him in his early twenties. His hair was dark and he had a neat, short beard. His face was peaceful in death, and if it wasn’t for the pale white tone of his skin, like freshly fallen snow, and the completely stillness with which he lay on the table, he may have tricked them into thinking he was only sleeping peacefully. Yaz could see why the doctor hadn’t believed him to have suffered.

‘No defensive marks at all, they were right,’ the Doctor murmured, examining Belen’s hands and nails. ‘Not even a scuff on his clothes. Which means that either whatever killed him took him by surprise and didn't give him the option of fighting back, or he welcomed it and didn't try to defend himself.’

She ran the sonic over him and frowned. ‘No blood left in him at all, not a drop. And yet there’s none on his clothes or his skin. What happened to him?’

‘Doctor…’ Yaz said slowly, the wounds on his neck catching her eye. ‘That looks an awful lot like…’

‘Puncture marks,’ the Doctor said, eyes wide. For there on the side of Belen’s neck were two small holes, perfectly neat and round. 

‘Please tell me it’s not  _ actually  _ vampires,’ Yaz said, thought part of her couldn’t wait to tell Ryan about this development.

Then they heard loud voices and heavy footsteps from outside, and the Doctor’s head shot up in alarm.

‘Aegeus.’

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, this is something I'm still not sure on.
> 
> If a character's name ends in s and I'm describing something that belongs to them (like Aegeus's house), is it s' or s's? I'm forever getting that wrong.


	3. Regular Vampires or Alien Vampires?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I think basically the jury has ruled that the s' Vs s's is still up in the air, no-one really knows, and you can basically do what you want 👍 thanks to everyone who shared their views! 
> 
> I had to further the plot a little bit in this chapter (or we're never going to get anywhere) but there will be Thasmin in the next one! You'll see what I mean when you read the last section. 
> 
> Also, can you tell I'm really not trying with the chapter titles 🤣

‘Under the table.’

‘Seriously?’

‘Yup!’

The Doctor and Yaz clambered underneath the table Belen’s body was lying on, grateful for the white cloth that covered it. Hidden underneath, pressed tightly against each other, all they could see was the sandalled-feet of the men that entered the room, the hem of one man’s robes sweeping the floor; the purple dye of the cloth indicated he was a nobleman. Aegeus.

‘A sad tale indeed, Archon,’ a man was saying. ‘He was found by guards on the hillside early this morning, they say it was as though he appeared out of thin air. His wounds are exactly the same as the other victims. A thorough search of the ground surrounding the parthenon was conducted but nothing was found.’ 

‘And there is nothing to indicate he fought his assailant?’ 

Aegeus’s voice was low and booming and Yaz pressed herself closer against the Doctor’s side as he circled the table like a shark, his feet making slow deliberate steps one in front of the other, the hem of his robes trailing behind him.  

‘Indeed, Archon. The same as with the others. No signs of a struggle anywhere either. It was a fast attack indeed, I doubt Belen even saw his attacker.’

There was a moment’s silence and Yaz caught the Doctor’s eyes looking up at the bottom of the table, as though she could see through the wood.

_ Who knows?  _ Yaz thought.  _ Maybe she can.  _

‘I want extra security around the Parthenon,’ Aegeus said a short while later. ‘More guards, day and night, as many as we can afford with the festivities happening over the next few days. A curfew would be preferable but difficult with the festival happening as well. Everyone must walk in pairs, no-one must be alone in the streets once the sun has set, and my boy…’

Here he trailed off, and the Doctor’s face softened. She looked ancient suddenly, much older than the 30-something woman she appeared to be, and Yaz wondered if she’d ever suffered the loss of a child. She didn't talk about her family, not ever, but surely someone who had lived for over two thousand years must have raised a child at some stage? 

‘Kerameikos has been informed of the death of your son,’ a different man said. ‘And as we speak a space in your family plot is being prepared for him.’

Aegeus’s feet shuffled on the floor and kicked up a small cloud of dust that trickled up under the table. The Doctor didn't seem to notice it, but Yaz immediately had to clap her hand over her mouth, her eyes going wide in fright as she breathed it in and the inside of her nose started to twitch.

‘His funeral shall be this afternoon,’ Aegeus was saying as the Doctor gave Yaz a concerned look. 

‘Of course, Archon. I shall inform the women to begin preparation of the body. We shall have a procession the likes of which Athens has never seen before.’ 

The men were starting to leave the room, and the Doctor was shaking her head anxiously at Yaz as the other woman tried desperately hard to push down the sneeze that was threatening to explode out of her. 

Aegeus was still in the room, the Doctor could see his purple robe and feet as he stood beside the table on which his son lay, and under which the two women were hiding. 

‘A glorious procession for you, my son,’ Aegeus was saying. ‘There shall not be a dry eye in the whole of Athens.’

‘No, no, no,’ the Doctor was mouthing at Yaz, shaking her head frantically. 

Aegeus turned and began to walk away and the Doctor, realising this was a sneeze that wasn’t going to just go away, shuffled forwards, grabbed Yaz’s head and pressed the other woman’s face firmly into her shoulder. 

Yaz sneezed, and the footsteps stopped.

The two women paused, Yaz still frozen with her face pressed against the Doctor. It had been a quiet sneeze, muffled by hands and fabric, but it had still made a noise that Aegeus had clearly heard. 

‘Do you need anything else, Archon?’ came a soft voice from the doorway.

‘I thought I heard…’ Aegeus took a step towards the table but then sighed and turned, walking towards the door instead. ‘Must have been a bird or a noise outside. Prepare my best robes and ensure the horses are shoed correctly. If this is to be the last parade my son will attend, it must be the finest.’

The footsteps retreated into the corridor outside and the door was closed.

The Doctor let go of Yaz and sighed in relief. 

‘That was a close one! You alright?’

‘Yeah, sorry,’ Yaz said, wiping her nose. ‘Thought I was going to explode for a second.’ 

‘Can’t have an exploding Yaz,’ the Doctor said, clambering out from under the table and reaching down to help Yaz to her feet. 

It was quiet and still in the room, only the sound of birdsong in the trees outside breaking the stillness, and the Doctor put a hand on Belen’s shoulder.

‘Poor lad,’ she said quietly. ‘At least he didn't suffer.’

‘Why didn't he fight back, though?’ Yaz asked. ‘If we’re assuming that those puncture marks are how the blood was drained out of him in the first place it would have given him enough time to fight back. Plus if he was attacked by something I’d have expected more of a mess.’

‘I agree,’ the Doctor said. ‘Something’s off. Let’s go find the boys.’

* * *

Ryan and Graham had managed to get snacks from somewhere and were sunning themselves underneath the tree, the square busier than it was yesterday and full of Greeks eating and chatting to each other.

‘Didn't get arrested then,’ Graham called when he saw them, sounding surprised.

‘Oi!’ the Doctor protested indignantly, sitting next to him and stealing his snacks. They were grapes, and Yaz happily took a handful as well.

‘Your track record in getting arrested isn’t the best, Doc,’ Graham pointed out, and she pulled a face at him. 

‘Did you manage to look at the body?’ Ryan asked, and the Doctor looked exasperated.

‘Honestly you two, have more faith! And yes we did see the body! And we only had to hide under the table for ten minutes max.’

Graham laughed but Ryan looked excited.

‘And? Is it vampires? It’s gotta be vampires.’

‘It is kind of looking that way,’ Yaz admitted. ‘Two puncture wounds on his neck. No blood left in him but none on his clothes either. No sign of a struggle and no indication that he tried to fight back against his attacker.’ 

‘Well that doesn’t sound right,’ Graham said with a frown. ‘Surely if you were getting the blood sucked out of you you’d put up a bit of a fight.’

‘That’s what I said!’ Yaz exclaimed. 

‘You’re both right,’ the Doctor said. ‘Something weird is going on. I think our next move is to go up to the Parthenon and have a look around, see if we can spot anything out of the ordinary.’ 

‘Ere, Doc,’ Graham said. ‘Is the water in that fountain safe to drink? We keep getting served watered down wine and I’m parched.’

The Doctor looked over to where Graham was pointing at a group of young Athenians drinking deeply out of a water fountain. The sun was high in the sky at this point and was beating down on them harsh and unforgiving. The Doctor didn't seem to notice, and Graham wondered if she was from a particularly hot climate as she hadn’t seem bothered by the heat on Desolution either, but the three humans were starting to struggle, and the Doctor looked at them in concern. 

‘Should be fine,’ the Doctor said, standing up and brushing dust off her chiton. ‘The water in the city is channeled directly from the streams just outside it. Nice and fresh. Hopefully. You lot stay here, I won’t be a sec.’ 

‘She’s non-stop,’ Ryan said once the Doctor had wandered over to the fountain to get them some water. ‘I wish I had her energy when I was working in the warehouse, took me ages to get going in the mornings.’

‘It still does!’ Graham said with a grin. ‘You feeling better, Yaz? You look perkier. Managed to get any sleep squished in with her last night?’

‘Squished?’ Ryan said, eyebrow raised and a grin on his face and Yaz hit him lightly on the arm.

‘We were in Calliope’s daughter’s room, only the one bed in there. I did manage to sleep though, thanks, Graham. I was proper knackered last night.’ 

‘Where did the Doctor sleep?’ Ryan asked, innocently. 

‘She doesn’t, does she?’ Graham said, frowning. ‘I mean she must do sometimes I guess but whenever I’ve wandered around the TARDIS at night she always seems to jump out you from somewhere, bright eyed and bushy tailed.’

‘She sleeps,’ Yaz said, failing to include the fact that she was also, apparently, a cuddler when she does. ‘Not very often though, I don’t think.’

‘What does she do when we’re asleep?’ Graham wondered. ‘Do you reckon she just wanders around the TARDIS waiting for us to wake up again?’

‘Imagine how many video games you could play if you didn't need to sleep us much as we do,’ Ryan said, wide eyed. 

‘My ears are burning,’ the Doctor chimed in, rejoining their little group with two jugs of water that she’d borrowed from the group of young Athenians at the fountain. Yaz drank deeply, not realising until that moment just how thirsty she was.

‘We were talking about what you do when we’re asleep,’ Graham said, splashing the cool water on the back of his neck.

‘No, I mean they’re literally burning,’ the Doctor replied, pulling her little bottle of suncream out of her bum bag and rubbing it onto the tips of her ears. 

‘How have you not run out of that by now?’ Ryan asked, but Graham immediately clapped his hands together and yelled:

‘It’s bigger on the inside!’

‘10 points for Graham!’ the Doctor said with a cheery smile, handing the bottle to Yaz and turning her shoulder in a silent appeal for Yaz to rub the cream onto her bare skin, something Yaz did in silence; unable to ignore the feeling of butterflies in her stomach at their proximity, at the feel of the Doctor’s skin under her hands or the small constellation of freckles on her shoulder. She was pink, but not noticeably so and Yaz made sure that every bare patch of skin was completely covered in cream.

‘Your scalp is starting to burn too,’ Yaz noticed, and she carefully arranged the gauzy scarf over the Doctor’s head, pinning it in place to her hibation. 

The Doctor looked at her, and while her expression was impossible to read her eyes were soft and full of warmth. Yaz smiled and then smeared the remainder of the suncream still coating her fingers onto the Doctor’s pink nose, making her scronch her face in amusement. 

‘Come on then fam,’ the Doctor said, jumping to her feet. ‘Shall we go for a walk?’

* * *

The path up the hill to the Parthenon was fortunately in shade, the sun currently on the other side of the mighty temple, and it wasn’t long before the four travellers were stood looking up in wonder at the magnificent structure.

‘Ere! It’s painted!’ Graham exclaimed in surprise.

‘Of course! Paint fades over time, hence why temples and statues in your time are so bare,’ the Doctor said. ‘Temples like this one that were dedicated to gods and goddesses would have been painted in bright, vibrant colours. No goddess wants a boring plain temple, how dull.’

‘Why is it called the Parthenon then?’ Ryan asked. ‘I thought this temple was built for Athena.’

‘Athena was referred to as Athena Parthenos,’ the Doctor explained as they made their way inside the blessedly cool temple. ‘Parthenos meaning maiden; she was one of the maiden goddesses. Never married and swore off men - smart woman. Now sush, we’re not supposed to talk in here.’ 

The temple was full of men and women lying prostrate on the floor before an enormous shining statue of the goddess above a high altar, food and drink scattered around it as offerings. The statue was massive, made of gold and ivory, and it depicted Athena with a mighty shield and a smaller statue of a winged figure held outstretched in her hand.

‘Nike,’ the Doctor whispered in response to Ryan’s quizzical look. ‘Not the clothing brand, the goddess of victory.’ 

‘What are we looking for, Doc?’ Graham said quietly.

‘Anything fishy,’ the Doctor replied. ‘But not the actual fish they’ve brought as offerings, although I think Calliope said we’re having fish for dinner. Let’s have a look around.’ 

Guards lined the inside of the temple, but they didn't seem to mind as the four of them walked slowly around it, head bent low as though in prayer. There were depictions of battle scenes carved into the marble of the temple in rich blue and red colours, and Yaz focused on those while she listened carefully for anything that sounded out of place or suspicious.

Ryan and Graham were looking up at the high ceiling in wonder, but the Doctor was frowning, her nose wrinkling like a bloodhound that had just caught a scent.

She stuck out her tongue and tasted the air, smacking her lips together as she considered. Her brow furrowed in confusion and she looked up at the gigantic golden statue, and then down at the altar. 

‘What you got, Doc?’ Graham whispered. 

‘Something metallic,’ she replied. ‘Something metallic that isn’t from this century. Isn’t even from this planet, I don’t think.’

‘So it’s aliens, not vampires?’ Ryan said, sounding disappointed.

‘Why not alien vampires?’ Graham consoled him.

A guard glared at them and they fell silent again, but the Doctor had managed to squeeze to the front of the people praying to the goddess and she dropped to her knees beside the others, stretching out on the floor as though copying their movements.

The three humans joined her, but Yaz noticed that she was staring at the altar, sniffing the air, her eyes darting about.

It looked like a perfectly normal altar to Yaz. Smooth white marble perfectly chiseled and finished, a soft shine emanating from it, but the Doctor didn't look happy and it wasn’t until they were outside again that Yaz was able to ask her about it. 

‘There was a smell,’ the Doctor said, sitting on the grass under a tree in front of the temple, her three friends sitting around her. ‘A strange metallic smell coming from the altar, or perhaps underneath it? There was something else too and I’m really hoping it isn’t what I thought it was, but I’d need a buzz with the sonic and a closer look when it isn’t full of people.’

She plucked a blade of dry grass from the ground and chewed on it before spitting it out in disgust.

‘Even the grass tastes metallic!’

‘What does it mean, Doc?’ Graham asked. ‘I’m assuming Ancient Greeks didn't have metal foundations for their temples.’

‘No, they didn't, but you might be onto something there, Graham,’ the Doctor realised suddenly. ‘I think there’s something metal underneath the temple. Something massive that’s leaching into the soil.’

‘But how does that relate to the murders?’ Ryan asked. 

‘Not sure,’ the Doctor admitted. ‘But there’s only one way to find out.’

‘We’re going to break into the Parthenon at night, aren’t we, Doc?’ Graham said, and the Doctor grinned. 

* * *

The walk back down to the city was steeper and the four of them were hot and out of breath by the time they’d reached the bottom. It was busier now, swarms of people moving about as the festival began to kick off and they bought honey cakes and sat in a square to watch a performance by a group of actors, some tragedy that Graham had never heard of but was very moving to watch. The festivities were brought to a sudden halt as Belen’s funeral procession began, and they joined the crowd of people lining the street to honour the Archon’s son in silence as he was carried through the city on a carriage drawn by two strong horses on the way to the cemetery, a large crowd of mourners following them with musicians playing sad music and singing melancholy songs as they walked.

The Doctor spotted the Archon walking slowly behind the body of his son, head bowed and hands clasped in front of him. He was a mighty man, tall and built like an ox. Strong muscles bulged under the fabric of his purple robes and Yaz found herself glad that he hadn’t caught them hiding under the table, who knows what he would have done to them?

‘Same as the others, I heard,’ a woman whispered to her friend beside them, and the Doctor took the opportunity to get a bit of gossip.

‘How many have there been?’ she asked, as the procession and its entourage went past and the festivities slowly started back up again. 

‘Eight, including Belen,’ the woman said. ‘All found up by the temple, laid out in the same way on the hill. Dreadful business it is. Just dreadful.’

‘Eight murders in the same place,’ Ryan said, confused. ‘Why haven’t they just closed the temple?’

‘They go there to be cleansed of the impurity that’s being brought upon them  _ by  _ these murders,’ the Doctor said with a shrug. ‘That’s partly what temples are for, and as the patron saint of the city they would want to pray to Athena more than any other deity.’ 

‘Rock and a hard place then,’ Graham realised.

Another group of actors moved into the square to begin the performance of a comedy this time, and the four of them found a spot in the shade to sit and watch the show, but the Doctor didn't once look up at the spectacle, choosing instead to stare at a spot between her feet in thought.

* * *

They started to make their way back to Calliope’s home later that afternoon, when the sun was still in the sky but it had cooled a little.

‘Urgh,’ Graham said, looking disgusted. ‘All this walking around in the sun and climbing up and down hills is making me feel a bit grim. I don’t suppose nipping back to the TARDIS for a quick shower is an option, Doc?’

‘Probably not a good idea,’ the Doctor said apologetically. ‘I don’t think we’ll be there and back before it gets dark. Plus, I’ve always wanted to try out a Greek bath.’

They’d stopped before a large structure held up by dozens of pillars, and Yaz noticed that the men and women coming out of it were glistening in oils and had wet hair, water dripping down their toned bodies. 

‘I’m game,’ Ryan said. ‘I feel gross. Meet you back at Calliope’s?’ 

The two men strolled happily into the building, and the Doctor turned to Yaz with a smile.

‘What do you reckon, bathtime?’

‘Sounds great,’ Yaz agreed. Her hair felt knotty and dusty from the sand and dirt up at the Parthenon, and she didn't even want to think about how badly she smelt. ‘Do you get your own little area? How does it work?’

‘Men and women wash separately but that’s the only segregation. There’s a giant bath, more like a swimming pool really, in the centre of the room and everyone gets naked and clambers in,’ the Doctor said cheerily, already untucking her himation and folding it over her arm as she took Yaz’s hand. ‘Come on! This is going to be fun.’

Yaz was in too much of a Gay Panic Mode ™ to even respond, and she could only let herself be pulled, dazed, by the Doctor’s warm hand in hers as she sent up a silent prayer to the statue of the Goddess on the hill.

_ I know you’re not part of my religion, but I am trying to help save the people in your city so if you are up there listening, I’m going to need some help here.  _

A young woman close by laughed and, while Yaz knew she was merely enjoying the presence of her friends and hadn’t been listening into Yaz’s inner thoughts, she did feel as though it was a response from the goddess herself and, roughly translated, would probably sound something like:

_ You’re on your own with this one. Good luck! _

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S GONNA GET GAY CHAPS


	4. The Naked Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm going away this weekend (to Sheffield believe it or not!) and I wanted to get this out before I did, so I'm sorry if it seems a little rushed! There will be some more action in the next chapter :)

Once inside the massive structure that contained the baths, the Doctor and Yaz were directed down a long corridor into the women’s section, far away from the prying eyes of the men and secluded in a cosy, reassuring way. There were drawings and mosaics on the walls and Yaz could hear the steady hum of voices and the splash of water in the distance. As relieved as she was that she was finally about to wash the dirt and sweat off her skin, the anxiety that had settled like a ball in her heart couldn’t be ignored and the butterflies in her stomach had amassed into a swarm. 

The corridor opened out into a massive room with mosaics on the floor and walls, steam and condensation causing water to run down the tiles. The bath itself was easily half the size of a swimming pool and was sunken into the floor with steps leading down to it. The Doctor looked delighted, and when Yaz risked a glance at her she saw her friend’s face lit up, although there was also a pink blush slowly rising up the side of her neck that Yaz was curious about. It didn't seem to be from the heat, although it was steamy in the chamber, and she’d never seen the Doctor be embarrassed before.

Apart from when she got something wrong and her face scronched and she got all cross and annoyed. 

Around them, women were climbing in and out of the bath and robes and clothing were being removed and hung up on the pegs along the wall. There were no towels anywhere, although some women had brought bundles of fabric with them for that purpose, and the majority of occupants were sat on the stone ledges around the walls simply allowing themselves to dry in the warm atmosphere or brushing out long hair while the water dripped onto the floor. 

Yaz had no problem with nudity, goodness knows she saw enough of it on the night shift in Sheffield, but she had never seen so many naked women in a room before and it gave her pause, something the Doctor was quick to pick up on.

‘If you’re uncomfortable we can leave,’ she said amicably. ‘We can always nip up to the TARDIS first thing tomorrow morning for a quick shower.’

‘No,’ Yaz said, perhaps too quickly. ‘This is amazing, really. Just a bit of a culture shock. Us Brits are very private, you know. Don’t usually have things on display, even when it’s just women.’ 

The Doctor still didn't seem happy with Yaz’s response, and the younger woman took a deep breath and undid her himation, taking the Doctor’s out of her hands and hanging it up on one of the hooks with her own.

‘Beside,’ she said, undoing the braids she’d secured her hair in that morning. ‘The steam is actually helping clear the gunk from my nose.’

The Doctor smiled and, in one fluid motion, pulled off her chiton, exposing more skin than Yaz had ever seen on her before, her knees going weak at the sight of long toned legs, a flat stomach and strong muscular arms. 

Yaz was well aware that the Doctor wasn’t self-conscious about nudity or being naked in front of others, although Yaz supposed that when you’d lived as long as she had you stopped worrying about that type of thing, and Yaz had caught her on many an occasion leaving the TARDIS bathroom wrapped only in a towel, humming happily to herself. She’d seen photographs of the male incarnations of her friend and, while she’d grudgingly admitted that a couple of them were slightly good looking, her female form was stunning and Yaz suspected the Doctor didn't even realise it, completely unaware of her own attractiveness or the effect she had on others; specifically Yaz herself. Yaz found herself staring at the Doctor’s belly button, realising that the simple presence of something that everyone on her planet had meant that she must have had parents, or at least a mother. Yaz wondered where her mother was now, if she even existed, and then, thinking about Noss, wondered if it was a similar situation on her friend’s home planet, and then that sparked an internal debate about how Earth men would react if they suddenly found they could get pregnant and have children in a week and suddenly Yaz was spiralling. 

The Doctor tilted her head at her friend, and Yaz realised she’d been staring at her stomach in silence for a good few seconds while she debated the ins and outs (pun intended) of reproduction. 

‘Earth to Yaz?’

‘What?’ Yaz’s head snapped up. ‘Sorry, still not feeling 100%.’ 

The Doctor’s expression softened and she smiled at Yaz. 

‘It’s okay to sit out of this evening’s adventure if you’re not feeling well enough. I don’t want you over-exerting yourself and feeling worse because of it.’

‘No!’ Yaz almost yelled, before correcting herself. ‘I mean, no. I want to come. I’ll be fine, might have a nap after dinner or something.’

‘The amount of wars that would never have started if their leaders had only had a proper sleep,’ the Doctor mused, and then her hands were reaching behind her back to unclip her bra and Yaz had to look away. Being caught staring at the Doctor’s stomach was one thing, being caught staring at her breasts was quite another. 

If the sight of modern day underwear was curious to any of the women in the bathing room, none of them noticed or batted an eyelid and Yaz politely turned her back while the Doctor shimmied out of her underthings. She heard a splash from behind her and realised her friend was already in the water, too impatient to wait. 

‘It’s lovely and warm, Yaz!’ the Doctor called to her, and Yaz breathed out slowly and began to undress, hanging up her chiton and then her underwear on the wooden hook.

The Doctor faced away from her as Yaz turned and slowly climbed down the steps into the water, hands out at her sides to feel her way down the steep stone. The water was warm and there were rocks on the bottom of the bath, smooth and round on her feet, creating an awkward unbalanced surface for her to walk on.

‘What are the rocks for, Doctor?’ Yaz asked, sinking down into the water happily until it was up to her shoulders. It felt like bliss after a day of walking and sweating in the sun, and Yaz tipped her head back so her hair was completely soaked, finger combing out the tangles. A woman next to her offered Yaz her wooden comb, and Yaz took it gratefully and began the arduous process of getting rid of the knots that had accumulated it in over the course of the day.

‘It’s really clever,’ the Doctor said, eager for a chance to show off how smart she was. ‘See, the Greeks used to just have to take freezing baths as fast as possible to be clean, but then someone realised that if you heated rocks and dropped them into the water, it would slowly warm the water up! There might be a coal fire in the room below us as well. Late afternoon is always the best time for a bath because the water has usually warmed up at that point. Isn’t this fun?’

It was fun, and Yaz turned the Doctor around so she could comb her short blonde hair carefully, tugging out the tangles. She didn't feel self-conscious at all now, but that might have to do with the fact that literally every other woman in the room was naked also, and Yaz was glad that she’d kept up with her exercise regime whilst travelling in the TARDIS because the majority of the Greek women in the bath with them were toned and beautiful. 

Speaking of, it was impossible to ignore the slender arches of the Doctor’s back or the wave of supple muscles that clenched and moved as the Doctor rolled her shoulders, and Yaz was grateful that they weren’t facing each other as she was sure her face was going bright pink.

Hair detangled, Yaz handed the wooden comb back to the woman who’d offered it to her and settled under the water, watching as a woman at the other end of the bath climbed out and began to rub what looked like oil into her skin. The water was foggy and Yaz was glad of this as the Doctor settled next to her, the two women relaxing in the warmth and steam of the room. 

‘Do you really think it’s vampires?’ Yaz asked, rebraiding her hair and trying to avoid looking at the Doctor and her toned, strong arms and her soft face and pronounced cheekbones and  _ oh god of all the women to have a crush on why does it have to be this one? _

‘Could be,’ her friend said with a shrug, not sounding convinced. ‘Never say never.’ 

‘Do you have a theory?’ 

The Doctor tilted her head to look at Yaz and the younger woman felt obliged to meet her gaze, her eyes soft and unreadable.

‘I have a couple but nothing I’d feel confident enough to share. What about you?’

‘Nothing,’ Yaz said, and the Doctor nudged her shoulder when she saw Yaz’s downtrodden face.

‘Well let me know when you do think of one cause honestly I don’t think mine are any good. I’m hoping we’ll learn more when we break into the Parthenon tonight. I mean  _ visit  _ the Parthenon in the  _ morning,’  _ she added as a woman sat next to them gave her a confused and curious look. 

They were silent for a moment, enjoying each other’s company, and then the Doctor moved to crouch in front of Yaz, finding her hand under the water. 

‘Are you not telling me something?’ she asked, not accusingly, and while Yaz’s first instinct was to refute it completely, the soft expression on the Doctor’s face made her hold her tongue and she opened and closed her mouth a couple of times like a fish. 

‘Course not,’ she lied. ‘I tell you everything. Open book I am.’

‘I’m not sure about that,’ the Doctor said with a smile, and she tapped the side of Yaz’s head. ‘You’re keeping something a secret from me, and that’s totally fine. I mean, it’s okay to have secrets. I certainly have enough of them. But I feel like this is a secret that’s upsetting you and would be better said out loud.’

Yaz almost said it there and then, almost opened her mouth and poured out her heart and soul. 

_ I love you. You’re amazing. I can’t bear the thought of us ever being apart. I want to stay with you forever. _

But then she remembered that they were both naked and in a bath in Ancient Greece with a  _ lot  _ of other naked women, and perhaps she wasn’t as brave as she thought she was.

_ You can dropkick a Pting like it’s a football but you can’t be honest with your feelings,  _ Yaz scolded herself, and she shook her head at the Doctor. 

‘There’s nothing,’ she said. ‘Nothing at all.’

The Doctor looked disappointed but she didn't press it, and the two women stayed in silence for the remainder of their bath. 

* * *

It was still relatively light when Yaz and the Doctor got back to the house, and they found Graham and Ryan already there, looking a lot cleaner and happier.

‘Aside from all the nudity, that was amazing,’ Graham said cheerfully. ‘The gossip we heard as well. You’d be amazed at the amount of debauchery that goes on in this city. It was like being back at the bus depot! Except everyone was naked.’

They settled on the floor in the small atrium as Calliope brought out plates of food, the smell of cooked fish making their mouths water.

‘Where’s Alexandros?’ the Doctor asked politely as they dug in, suddenly ravenous.

‘He will be back shortly,’ Calliope said. ‘He is always late home during the festivals, but he usually brings something tasty back for desert. I’ve saved him a plate. How was your day?’

Alexandros came back while Ryan and Graham were in the middle of a grand reenactment of the play they’d seen in the square, and he looked apologetically at his wife and guests.

‘Please forgive me,’ he said. ‘I’ve brought friends back with me for dinner, fellow merchants.’

‘Of course,’ Calliope said. She stood and brushed crumbs from her clothes, indicating to the Doctor and Yaz that they should stand also. 

‘We should retire to the rear of the house,’ Calliope said. ‘I’m not sure how it is in Albion but here it is not proper for women to be at a man’s  _ symposium.  _ Women and men typically eat separately and don’t mix with each other.’

Ryan and Graham both looked equally outraged, but the Doctor quietened their protests before they’d even left their lips with a gentle wave of her hand. 

‘We’ll see you later,’ she told them, and the two men grouchily sat back down again with dark expressions. While Calliope probably thought she was referring to later as being ‘in the morning’, the three humans knew that what she’d actually meant was:  _ later.  _

‘I don’t understand,’ Yaz whispered to the Doctor once they were back in their little room. ‘We all ate breakfast together this morning?’

‘That was a bit of a no-no,’ the Doctor admitted. ‘I’m getting the impression that Alexandros thinks it’s as daft as we do, but I suppose he needs to keep up appearances for his male friends. Woman and men weren’t supposed to mix, especially at social events. Women weren’t even supposed to leave the house.’

‘But Calliope was outside last night?’

‘Because of the festival,’ the Doctor explained, sitting on the edge of their bed and swinging her legs. ‘Women were allowed to be outside for limited times for things like festivals, funerals and formal affairs. Me and you only got away with it cause we’re obviously not from here.’ 

‘How did women from history not just walk around smacking men in the face?!’ Yaz said with feeling, and the Doctor grinned. 

‘I feel that, especially now I am one.’ 

‘So we’re stuck in here for the entirety of the evening then?’ Yaz said. Secretly of course she didn't mind at all, but she could tell the Doctor was restless and wanted to be out doing something, solving mysteries, not hanging around waiting to be let out of her room like a stubborn child throwing a tantrum. Especially considering she was a grown woman older than organised religion (as she’d remarked to Graham the other day). 

‘Fraid so, at least until we sneak out later. You could have that nap you were on about?’

‘I guess so.’ Yaz looked around their little room and frowned. ‘That doesn’t give you anywhere to sit though. Ancient Greeks not a fan of chairs?’

‘I’ll be fine,’ the Doctor said. She seemed perfectly content with just looking out of the window and Yaz stretched out on the bed, curling onto her side. She did feel tired, the combination of walking around in the sun all day and the warm water and steam from her bath soothing her tired limbs and making her feel a little heavy. 

‘I don’t mind if you join me, you can’t just stand there for the next few hours,’ Yaz yawned into her elbow, trying to make herself as small as possible to allow room for the Doctor to climb on next to her.

There was a pause, and then a weight on the bed and a cool hand on her forehead as the Doctor leaned over her, the ends of her blonde hair tickling Yaz’s cheek.

‘You still feel a little warm,’ the Doctor said worriedly. ‘Are you sure you’re up for going out tonight?’

Yaz nodded sleepily and the Doctor withdrew her hand, lying down next to her and carefully positioning her body so she wasn’t pressed quite so firmly against Yaz.

This, Yaz knew, probably meant that she was falling off the bed, and she reached behind her and grabbed the Doctor’s arm, pulling it over her own waist and inviting her friend to curl up against her. She probably wouldn’t have been so bold and daring if she wasn’t feeling a combination of tired, unwell, and slightly sorry for herself, but the Doctor didn't seem to mind and soon she was pressed flush against Yaz’s back, her arm carefully tucked over Yaz’s waist and her breath warm on the back of the younger woman’s neck.

Yaz sighed happily and she felt the Doctor shuffle, pressing herself a little closer against Yaz and away from the edge of the bed.

‘You sure this is okay?’ the Doctor whispered softly and Yaz nodded sleepily, holding the hand over her waist tightly in her own. 

‘This is perfect.’

* * *

When Yaz woke up next it was dark outside and she could tell it was later that night. Her mind was desperately trying to convince her that she needed more sleep but she could hear the soft patter of feet as the Doctor moved around the room and then her friend was leaning over her with a hand on her shoulder.

‘Last chance to back out,’ she whispered quietly. ‘You can stay here if you’re feeling unwell. Seriously, none of us would hold it against you.’

‘And let you have all the fun?’ Yaz pulled a face. ‘Think again.’

The corridors were dark and the Doctor and Yaz padded quietly through the house towards the men’s area, not making a sound. The Doctor said she’d heard their hosts go to bed a while ago and had left it as late as she could to ensure the likelihood of them being asleep. Graham and Ryan were both still snoozing, Yaz noticed they had a bed each, although Ryan’s was more a mat on the floor, but they woke up quickly and followed the two women out into the silent street. 

‘I’m never going to get used to seeing a sky like that,’ Graham said, looking up at the stars shining brilliantly above their heads, so much clearer than any they’d seen in Sheffield.

‘I can kind of see the pictures now,’ Ryan said. ‘You know, the constellations and things, now the smaller stars are visible too.’ 

‘Better stay quiet,’ the Doctor whispered. ‘And keep to the back streets. After Belen was murdered Aegeus ordered more guards to patrol at night, we need to stay silent and invisible.’

‘That won’t be a problem for us, Doc,’ Graham said, giving her a meaningful look.

‘Oi!’

They proceeded silently, ducking behind pillars and round corners when the clatter of the Athenian guards’ armour echoed through the streets. It was pitch black and the only light came from braziers dotted around the city, but even they were going out without anyone around to keep them lit. It was a cloudless night and the moon and stars above them shone down brightly, illuminating the way. 

‘This is all very Scooby-Doo,’ Graham whispered to his three friends once they’d safely cleared the city and were beginning the climb up the hill to the Parthenon. The Doctor had insisted they take a different path to avoid being in the direct line of sight for the guards on the top of the hill, and the path was rocky and unsteady under their feet. 

‘My entire life is Scooby-Doo,’ the Doctor replied, grabbing Ryan’s hand and helping to steady him when he almost slid back down the steep incline. 

‘Doctor, look!’ Yaz said suddenly, and they paused and squinted in the dark; looking at where Yaz was pointing.

Not too far ahead of them there was a man, dressed as they were, clambering up the side of the hill towards the great temple as fast as his legs would carry him. It was difficult to see from a distance but, judging by the speed he was moving, he appeared to be young and athletic, half running up the hill in a style that reminded Ryan of Monty Python’s  _ The Ministry of Silly Walks _ . 

‘Do you think he had the same idea as us, Doc?’ Graham asked her. 

‘I don’t know what he’s doing, but I don’t like it,’ the Doctor replied, and she tugged up her chiton and carried on climbing. ‘Come on gang, better get moving.’

* * *

‘Where is everyone?’ Yaz asked once they’d reached the top of the hill and were scuttling around the outside of the temple, trying to remain as silent as possible in case they were seen or heard by the guards. The city of Athens was illuminated in moonlight below them and the white marble of the Parthenon glowed iridescent in the light.

‘I thought you said Aegeus had ordered more guards to patrol?’ Graham said, confused.

‘He did,’ the Doctor replied, frowning. ‘But where are they all?’

Then they arrived at the front of the Parthenon, and the answer became clear.

All of the guards were stood in front of the temple, facing away from it, completely frozen still.

‘Are they playing musical statues or something?’ Graham asked, uncertain.

‘Not sure,’ the Doctor murmured, edging slowly closer towards them. ‘Certainly looks like it.’ 

The guards didn't move as the four of them approached, and when the Doctor waved her hand in front of the face of one of them he didn't flinch or make a sound. The others were behaving in the same fashion and their eyes seemed to be fixed ahead, not moving or blinking or giving any indication that they knew the Doctor and her friends were even there.

‘They’re like the Kerblam postmen,’ Ryan said, nervously. ‘Like the ones in the warehouse.’ 

‘What’s happened to them?’ Yaz asked. 

‘It’s like something has shut down the movement centres of their brain,’ the Doctor said, rooting around in her bum bag for her sonic. She waved it around and frowned at the reading. ‘Massive telepathic field coming from inside the temple. Something is controlling them, stopping them from moving or speaking. Taking away their free will and essentially pausing them.’

‘They’re still breathing though, right?’ Graham checked.

‘Yeah,’ the Doctor responded. ‘It’s like when you lock your computer. You temporarily pause the programs but everything still runs in the background. Well not really, but sort of.’ 

‘No wonder it was like the bodies were appearing out of thin air if the guards were like this,’ Yaz realised. ‘What could do something like this?’

‘Vampires?’ Ryan said hopefully, but the Doctor shook her head. 

‘I don’t think so. Whatever is doing this has strong telepathic abilities, way stronger than mine. To physically  _ stop  _ someone, to put them on pause, it takes a massive amount of energy and concentration.’

‘So it’s definitely alien?’ Graham said. 

‘Must be,’ the Doctor agreed, frowning at her sonic as she scanned the ground around them. ‘And there it is again, that vague taste of metal.’

‘I can’t say I notice it, Doc,’ Graham said, sticking his tongue out as though he was trying to catch snowflakes on the end of it.

‘At the temple this morning -’ Yaz remembered suddenly ‘- when we were at the altar, you said it was like there was a metallic smell coming from underneath it and you really hoped it wasn’t what you thought it was. What did you think it was?’ 

‘Try and guess,’ the Doctor said, looking worried. ‘What smells and tastes metallic and fits with these murders?’

‘Oh god,’ Ryan said, the colour draining from his face. ‘You don’t mean…’

‘Blood,’ Yaz realised. ‘The blood from the bodies, you think it’s under the altar?’

The Doctor gripped her sonic tightly in her hand. ‘We’d better go find out, hadn’t we? You three should stay here. If whatever is creating this telepathy is inside the temple I won’t be able to protect you.’

‘Or yourself,’ Graham pointed out. ‘You said it was stronger than you. You’re going to need back up on this one.’

‘We stick together,’ the Doctor said firmly, looking at each of them. ‘No sudden movements, go slowly and be careful.’

‘Isn’t that the bloke from the hill?’ Ryan said, indicating the figure that had just slipped inside the temple. ‘Where’s he off to?’ 

The Doctor gripped Yaz’s hand, who grabbed Ryan’s, who in turn grabbed Graham’s.

‘Slowly and carefully,’ the Doctor told them as they made their way towards the entrance.

The three humans exchanged looks amongst themselves. When the Doctor was worried, you knew things were really bad. 

It was dark inside the temple but the torches on the wall were still lit and they could hear voices, soft and gentle like murmurs on the breeze. There was a strange light coming from inside the main room and they slowed as they approached it, keeping to the shadows as much as possible.

‘... so brave,’ a female voice was saying. ‘And so strong too. You are a mighty warrior.’

‘Um, Doc?’ Graham said uncertainly.

‘Yup, I see her,’ the Doctor said in shock. 

For there in front of the altar, the man they’d seen on the hill kneeling on the floor in front of her, was Athena Parthenos herself. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun DAAAAAAAAAA


	5. Moonlight Sonata

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly shorter chapter but a bit of plot development! 
> 
> (Everything I've written re. Gallifrey is from the TARDIS wiki page. Super easy to get lost on that site!)
> 
> Thank you so much for all the lovely comments I've gotten, I'm loving everyone's theories! Hopefully this chapter will make sense :)

‘That isn’t really her, right?’ Ryan whispered as the four of them hid behind one of the pillars, crouched down as low as they could get into the shadows. 

‘It does kind of look like her,’ Graham muttered.

‘What’s she doing to that bloke?’ Yaz said, eyes squinting in the gloom as she tried to watch the scene unfolding in front of them.

Athena was standing tall at the altar, the man they’d seen on the hill lying on the floor on front of her. She was a strikingly beautiful woman, tall and slender with long dark hair that was braided down her back. She was dressed similarly to her statue in a long flowing chiton that went down to her feet, an armour breastplate secured tightly across her chest. A helmet was on her head and by her side was a circular shield and a spear. She emanated power and Ryan found it difficult to take his eyes off of her. 

‘I heard you calling and I came as fast as I could,’ the man on the floor was murmuring, kissing the goddess’ feet. ‘Tell me what this miserable worm can do for you, Lady Athena.’

‘This should be good,’ Graham muttered.

Athena gestured towards her altar. 

‘I need something only you can provide,’ she said soothingly, patting the smooth marble with her hand. ‘Please, lay down for me.’

‘There are two ways I can envision this going, and I don’t like either of them,’ Graham said, making a face. 

The man almost tripped over his own feet in his hurry to stand up and he lay on the smooth marble of the altar, gazing up at the beautiful woman leaning over him, eyes full of devotion.

‘Doctor, I don’t like this…’ Ryan said uncertainly. ‘What is she going to do to him?’

‘Not sure,’ the Doctor replied quietly. She had her sonic screwdriver out but seemed reluctant to use it, worried about making a sound and giving their location away.

It wouldn’t have made a difference though, as suddenly Athena’s head snapped up and she took a step forward, brow furrowed as she peered into the gloom where the three travellers were hiding.

‘What is it, my lady?’ the man asked, sitting up and following her gaze. ‘Is something wrong?’

‘You were followed,’ Athena replied, her voice hard and stern, all the warmth drained out of it.

The man immediately jumped off the altar in a passionate rage and pulled a dagger from his belt, pointing it into the shadows. 

‘Show yourselves!’ he yelled, positioning himself in front of Athena as though an immortal goddess was really the one that needed protecting. 

‘You three stay here,’ the Doctor said urgently. ‘Whatever happens, do not move.’

‘You think she’s dangerous?’ Yaz asked.

‘Definitely,’ the Doctor replied. ‘I think she’s some kind of siren, luring people here to their death. I think she’s the one responsible for the murders.’ 

‘Doc-!’ 

But the Doctor stood up, brushed the dust from her chiton, and stepped out into the light. 

Athena tilted her head at her in curiosity and took a step forward, holding out a hand in front of her as her eyes travelled up and down the Doctor’s slender form. She didn't appear frightened or angry, only interested in this new person in her temple. 

The man, on the other hand, obviously perceived the Doctor as a threat to his goddess and he ran forwards with his dagger raised high in his hand. For one horrifying moment the three humans thought he was going to stab their friend, but then he froze suddenly with his arm outstretched, hand tightly clutching the blade only inches from the Doctor’s chest, face contorted in anger, and the room was suddenly silent as the two women regarded each other. 

‘You’re not human,’ Athena said pleasantly, taking another step forward and ignoring the now-frozen Athenian at her side, his face blank like the guards at the front of the temple. 

‘Neither are you,’ the Doctor responded, also taking another step forward.

There was something peculiar about her movements and the way she spoke, Ryan thought to himself. She appeared humanoid but the way she walked and the way she carried herself wasn’t quite right. Ryan would have expected a goddess to hold herself in the manner of a queen or some other mighty ruler,  but instead she struck him more as a flight attendant giving the safety briefing. 

‘Clever trick,’ the Doctor was saying, her sonic out and buzzing away as she scanned the goddess. ‘With the human statues, I mean. I’m not sure even my telepathy is that strong, although admittedly I’ve never given it a go, but my people are more touchy-feely anyway.’

Athena said nothing, and the Doctor frowned at her sonic.

‘Interesting… you don’t have any life signs. No brain activity, no heartbeat, no respiratory effort. You don’t even have a stomach to rumble do you?’

‘What is that device?’ Athena asked and, for the  _ briefest  _ of seconds, Ryan could have sworn her saw her shimmer.

‘And there it is!’ the Doctor exclaimed. ‘You don’t have any life signs because you’re  _ not alive.  _ What are you, a hologram? Computer interface? Projection from somewhere? Where are you from?’

‘I could ask you the same question,’ Athena replied, head tilted again. ‘You have a binary vascular system and I can detect traces of Artron energy about you. These life-signs are non-conventional in this part of the galaxy. What is your planet of origin?’

The three humans suddenly got extra interested in the conversation. They knew the Doctor was an alien, knew she had two hearts and could hold her breath for a ridiculously long time, but it occurred to them then that they actually had no idea what planet she was from and may be about to find out.

‘So you’re able to scan me,’ the Doctor said, curious. ‘What with? If you’re a computer program you probably have scanning capabilities built in somewhere. Ooh no wait I bet you’re telepathically linked to a computer. Is it a ship?’ 

‘Please answer my question, and I will answer yours,’ Athena said calmly, as though they were discussing whether apples were better than oranges. 

‘Interesting. You have reasoning protocols and are capable of logical thought,’ the Doctor said thoughtfully. ‘Alright then, I’ll agree to your terms if it gets me answers. I’m from Gallifrey, although you won’t find it on any star chart you have stored in your database.’ 

Yaz, Ryan and Graham looked at each other from behind their pillar and Ryan mouthed the word, rolling it around in his mouth.

_ Gallifrey.  _

‘I have no records of a planet called Gallifrey,’ Athena said. She’d gone still and her eyes were fixed on a position just over the Doctor’s shoulder, as though she was going through information in her mind to try and dig up some long forgotten data or image of the Doctor’s home. ‘What constellation is it in, please?’

‘My turn,’ the Doctor replied. ‘Where are  _ you  _ from?’

‘I am from the Bendari homeworld in sector 8 of the Leopa Nebula,’ Athena replied. ‘What constellation is the planet Gallifrey in, please?’

‘Bendari?’ the Doctor frowned. ‘But that’s whole galaxies away. Gallifrey is in the constellation of Kasterborous. How did you get here?’ 

‘My ship encountered a wormhole and was thrown through the Time Vortex. We crash landed here three hundred years ago. Kasterborous is made up of seven systems. Which contains Gallifrey?’

‘It’s just to the left of Karn,’ the Doctor said, sonicing again with a frown on her face. ‘Why are you so interested?’

‘Part of our mission was data collection,’ Athena said. ‘I am responsible for logging and archiving all information gathered about new planets. Please define the word  _ Gallifrey.’ _

‘It means “they that walk in the shadows”,’ the Doctor said, and suddenly she dropped to her knees and pressed her ear against the ground. ‘There’s vibrations coming from underneath the floor. What is that?’

‘That is my ship,’ Athena said. 

‘Your ship is buried under the Parthenon?’

‘Correct. Who does “they” refer to, please?’

‘Your ship has been buried under the Parthenon for  _ three hundred years??’ _

‘Correct. Who does “they” refer to, please?’

‘Where is the crew?’

‘Please answer my question.’

The Doctor stood up again and looked curiously at Athena, leaning in close and scrutinising the other woman’s face as though she was looking for something. 

‘“They” refers to my race, the Time Lords,’ the Doctor explained. ‘“Walk in the shadows” pertains to the oath we took to never interfere in the development of other civilizations or galaxies. Although, admittedly, I’ve broken it several times. Where is the crew?’

‘Information stored,’ Athena said. ‘The crew is dead. I am all that is left.’

The Doctor took a step back and her eyes narrowed. 

‘Are you responsible for the murders?’

‘Murders?’ Athena tilted her head. ‘I do not recognise the word. Please define.’

‘The unlawful killing of others. The bodies that have been found on the hill. Was that you?’

‘Yes.’

She spoke with no sign of remorse or emotion and didn't appear to regret her actions in the slightest, something that immediately put the Doctor on edge.

_ If the Doctor was a cat,  _ Yaz considered from her hiding place.  _ Her hackles would be up. _

‘Why?’ the Doctor asked, her tone dark. 

‘My ship needs refueling,’ Athena replied simply, and the Doctor frowned.

‘Refueling? I don’t see how the two are related.’

‘My ship needs refueling,’ she said again, and the blood suddenly drained from the Doctor’s face as her eyes went wide in realisation. 

‘Of course,’ she whispered.  _ ‘Refueling.  _ Your people use iron to power your ships, don’t you?’

She started to pace, walking up to the altar and then around in a circle while she tried to think through this new piece of information, hands gesticulating as she spoke aloud to herself.

‘So what happened exactly? Your ship crash landed here three hundred years ago and all the crew were killed. But why now? Why all this time later? Unless…  _ oh,  _ of course! The temple!’ she spread her arms wide and looked up at the ceiling. ‘The moon! Your people - the Bendari - you have 10 moons orbiting your world, correct? You use  _ lunar  _ power to charge your buildings, ships, homes, factories, satellites, toasters, microwaves - all of it! So your ship crash lands on a planet with only one moon and - I’m assuming all the systems were destroyed or damaged when it did - tries to absorb lunar radiation from Earth’s moon to recharge itself  _ except  _ it’s not enough! So the ship lies dormant, slowly collecting radiation and recharging itself  _ until  _ the ancient Greeks come along and build a whopping great big temple on a hill which  _ amplifies  _ the moonlight and charges the ship faster! _ ’ _

The Doctor paused in her explanation and frowned, looking at Athena curiously. 

‘But that’s the bit I don’t understand and I still have a few questions. You’re a hologram or a computer program or the like so why have you suddenly taken it upon yourself to repower your ship? And why impersonate a Greek Goddess? Why lure Athenians here and drain them of their blood? And if you  _ are  _ a computer program then how is your telepathy so powerful? Maybe that’s more than “a few questions”.’

‘We are humane,’ Athena replied. 

‘Humane? What do you mean by that?’

‘My people do not wish to cause harm, except in drastic circumstances.’

‘Nope, I still don’t understand,’ the Doctor said, frowning. ‘Why do you think that human blood is compatible with engine fuel? And how are you causing the puncture marks on the neck?’

‘I can show you,’ Athena said, and she unfroze the Athenian man. He was docile now and quiet, and seemed perfectly happy when the goddess took his hand and started leading him back towards the altar.

‘No,’ the Doctor said, standing in her way. ‘Do not hurt that man.’

‘It’s alright, I have been blessed by the goddess herself,’ the man said, a loopy smile on his face. ‘I welcome death.’

‘You must stand aside,’ Athena said in that calm, pleasant voice. ‘I cannot allow you to interfere.’

‘ _ I’m  _ not the one interfering and my god is that a weird thing to say,’ the Doctor said, looking slightly confused. 

‘Please, stand aside,’ Athena replied, but the Doctor shook her head. 

‘No. Let him go. Using human blood won’t work, there isn’t enough iron in it to power your ship. Let me take a look at it, I’ll probably be able to get it working again without the need for more death!’

Athena swept her arm and the Doctor was suddenly flung off the ground and propelled through the air, hitting a marble pillar hard with a resounding  _ smack  _ and sliding to the ground where she lay in a motionless heap.

‘Doctor!’ Yaz cried desperately, but Graham and Ryan held her back.

‘Hold on, Yaz,’ Graham said, clutching her arm tightly. ‘We can’t help her if the same thing happens to us.’

‘We need to save that man!’ Yaz said, trying to struggle out of the two men’s grip.

‘I think it’s too late for that,’ Ryan said sadly. ‘Look.’

The man was lying on the altar with his eyes closed and a happy smile on his face. Two thick wires snaked out from underneath the altar and, with a  _ schink  _ sound that made the three humans winch, punctured the man’s neck, burrowed into his carotid artery and began to drain him of his blood.

‘You are so brave,’ Athena was saying to him gently, a hand on his forehead stroking back his hair. ‘Such a brave, brave man.’

‘I can’t watch,’ Ryan said quietly, turning his head away from the sight.

Yaz was crying silently, her hand reaching out towards the unconscious body of her friend on the other side of the temple. 

‘He’s not suffering,’ Graham said miserably, a hand on Ryan’s shoulder. ‘If nothing else, at least he’s not suffering.’

A few seconds later, the grizzly ordeal was over and silence fell heavily inside the temple. The two wires retracted from the dead man’s neck and were pulled back under the altar, down to wherever the hologram’s ship was buried deep underground. There was a flash of light and the man disappeared, the altar still sparkling clean like nothing had ever happened. There was no trace of blood anywhere and the marble shone a dazzling white. 

Athena flickered and disappeared, and the four of them were alone once more. 

The three humans immediately got to the feet and ran towards the Doctor, throwing themselves down at her side. She was pale and blood had stained her blonde hair red but she moaned quietly and frowned in her sleep as Ryan carefully rolled her onto her side. The sonic had rolled to the centre of the room and Yaz grabbed it and secured it back into the Doctor’s bum bag.

‘Nasty knock to the head but she’s breathing still,’ Graham said, relieved. ‘She’s made of strong stuff is our Doc.’

There was a shout from outside and the sound of running outside the temple, a stampede of feet on the hill echoing through the Parthenon.

‘I think they must have found that poor bloke’s body,’ Graham said. ‘We better get out of here before they find us. Can you carry the Doc, Ryan?’

With Yaz and Graham’s help, Ryan carefully lifted the Doctor over his shoulder and the four of them snuck out of the Parthenon as quietly as they could, away from the guards on the other side of the temple kneeling over the dead man’s body. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S NOT VAMPIRES. 
> 
> also, I hope you're ready for some comfort in the next chapter.


	6. A tactical retreat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be action in the next chapter to make up for the lack of it in this one but for now: enjoy the softness!
> 
> (Again, I'm making no effort with chapter titles)

The sun was a faint blip on the horizon sending out soft yellow rays across the sleeping city when the four of them snuck out of the temple, carefully making the trek back down the hill as slowly as they could without running the risk of being spotted by the guards.

The Doctor was still slumped over Ryan’s shoulder, arms dangling down his back, and Yaz and Graham were doing their best to support the two of them whilst Ryan was being extra careful about where he put his feet, terrified of dropping her.  They’d debated hiding up on the hill behind the Parthenon while they waited for the Doctor to come round, but she showed no signs of stirring and every second they spent up there they ran the risk of being caught by the guards.

‘We can’t just carry her through the city,’ Graham whispered as they neared the bottom, seeking refuge behind a large tree and giving Ryan the opportunity to put the Doctor down and stretch his arms and shoulders. For such a small woman she wasn’t half heavy.

‘I’ve got an idea,’ Yaz said. She dug around in the Doctor’s bum bag until she’d recovered one of the snacks her friend had stored in there; a small packet of wine gums. ‘You lot stay here, I won’t be long.’

Barely ten minutes later, the four of them were on the back of a rickety cart being pulled through the city by the farmer that Yaz had paid in wine gums for a lift back to Calliope’s home. Despite the early hour it was warm and the streets were starting to get busy again, carts and tables being set up ready for the next day of the festival as Athenians hollored to each other in the streets.

‘That’ll give the historians something to think about if they ever find the wrapper hundreds of years later,’ Graham said, nodding at the farmer happily munching his wine gums as he urged his donkey through the slowly-building crowds.

Calliope and Alexandros were already awake and were waiting anxiously in the house for them to arrive home, however their relief turned to worry when Ryan and Yaz carefully lifted the Doctor out of the cart and carried her into the house.

‘We heard another body was found on the hill,’ Alexandros said. ‘We were so worried about you.’

‘Sorry about that,’ Graham said. ‘We got up early to go for a walk this morning and this one-’ he indicated their unconscious friend ‘- such a calamity, honestly. She fell and hit her head on the stones.’

‘It is a nasty injury,’ Calliope said sounding worried, pushing the Doctor’s hair carefully away from her face to inspect the wound. ‘Perhaps we should summon the physician.’

‘No!’ the three of them yelled in unison, and Calliope and Alexandros frowned in confusion.

‘I mean,’ Yaz said quickly. ‘I’ll keep an eye on her. She’ll be fine.’

The couple didn't look certain but Yaz, Graham and Ryan could tell they had places to be and the three of them found it relatively easy to usher them out of their home, promising they’d bring some honey cakes back for dinner.

‘Phew! That was a close one,’ Graham said. ‘Not sure what an ancient Greek physician would have made of her.’

Ryan had lain the Doctor out across a seat in the living area, an old ancient Greek idea of a wooden sofa perhaps, he considered, and Yaz unpinned her himation to tuck over their friend, ripping part of it and finding water to clean the wound with while Graham and Ryan prepared breakfast with the food their hosts had left out for them.

‘So, Athena is an alien hologram who’s been draining Athenians of their blood so she can use it to power her ship,’ Graham said, munching on a piece of bread.

‘Her ship that’s been buried under the Parthenon for the past three hundred years,’ Ryan added.

‘And she has really strong telepathic powers,’ Yaz chimed in.

‘How can a hologram be telepathic?’ Graham said. ‘They’re computers aren’t they? Photons and force fields and all that?’

The Doctor mumbled something and her eyes flickered a little, fingers clenching at her side.

‘You waking up?’ Graham asked her, and the Doctor’s eyes opened; blinking blearily up at them.

‘Hey,’ Yaz said softly. ‘You’re alright. We got out the temple. Just take it slow.’

‘That’s an oxymoron, isn’t it?’ Graham said cheerily, glad his friend was okay. ‘Taking it slow in relation to the Doc?’

‘Ow,’ the Doctor said crossly, rubbing her head and winching. ‘Not been thrown against a pillar for a while.’

She looked up suddenly, eyes wide. ‘What happened to -?’

But the expression on the faces of her three friends told her the answer immediately and she looked down at the floor miserably as she tried to push herself into a sitting position, Yaz sitting beside her so she had something to anchor herself against.

‘There was nothing any of us could have done, Doc,’ Graham said gently. ‘She was too powerful.’

‘How can a hologram even do that?’ Ryan asked. ‘How can she have telepathic abilities?’

‘It’s not really telepathy,’ the Doctor said, leaning heavily against Yaz. ‘More of a defence mechanism, like an antivirus program. The human brain is, essentially, one big powerful computer. You lot are pretty primitive in most parts of the galaxy I’m afraid, and there are a number of races, hers included, that have the ability to tap into the human mind. She was programmed by them, therefore she is able to do the same. As for the flinging across a room thing it’s like Graham said - force fields. She can project them, bend the air around her.’

‘Like Avatar,’ Ryan said, nodding. ‘That’s well cool.’

‘And why is she appearing as a Greek Goddess?’ Graham asked. ‘And how is she luring Athenians up to the Parthenon to go all Dracula on them?’

‘She’s not a vampire after all,’ Ryan said sadly, sounding disappointed.

‘That man said that he heard her calling to him,’ Yaz realised suddenly. ‘That’s it, isn’t it? She’s selecting random people and using her telepathic, sort of, abilities to make them think that she’s the real Goddess Athena to get them to come up to the hill, freezing the guards so they can’t interrupt while she drains them.’

The Doctor nodded and smiled softly. ‘50 points to Yaz,’ she said. Her eyes looked glazed and she was leaning more and more heavily against Yaz, her head lolling on the other woman’s shoulder.

‘How are we going to stop her, Doc?’ Graham asked, frowning. ‘We can’t get close to her.’

‘We need to get a look at her ship,’ the Doctor said. ‘The Parthenon will be teaming with guards by now, we’ll have to go back this evening.’

‘That works for me, I’m knackered,’ Graham said with a yawn. ‘And you need a longer nap, Doc. You look exhausted.’

‘Thanks,’ she muttered at him, blowing hair out of her face.

‘Keep an eye on her,’ Ryan told Yaz, and she gave him a mock salute as the two men stood up and went back to their room for a sleep.

‘I feel fine,’ the Doctor protested, looking at Yaz with large, soulful eyes.

‘Come on,’ her friend said, tucking an arm around the Doctor’s waist and helping her to stand, taking her weight as best she could. ‘You got hit harder than you think. I’m pretty sure if we went back to the temple there would be a dent in the pillar.’

‘Take that, pillar,’ the Doctor mumbled sleepily, dragging her feet as Yaz helped her towards their room.

It was cool in the room, and Yaz deposited the Doctor on the bed and opened the wooden shutters to allow some air and the sound of bird song to filter in through the windows. It wasn’t until she was sat on the bed beside her friend that a wave of exhaustion hit Yaz also, and she realised there was nothing she wanted more than to curl up beside the Doctor.

‘You okay?’ the Doctor asked softly, stretched out on her side facing Yaz, her eyelids heavy with tiredness.

Yaz nodded and yawned, laying down on the narrow bed to face her and pulling the blanket up over the pair of them, one hand pulling the hair tie out of her hair when her braid pulled uncomfortably against her scalp.

‘Long night,’ she said, kicking off her sandals and hearing the _thump_ as they fell to the floor.

‘More of the same tonight,’ the Doctor said apologetically, and Yaz smiled.

‘It’s like night shifts,’ she said. ‘The first one is always the hardest but once you’d done it the others are much easier.’

The Doctor _hmmed_ in agreement and Yaz wondered if she’d ever done shift work before, although with her irregular sleeping pattern she’d probably done the equivalent of it several times over without batting an eyelid. Yaz wished she had the Doctor's apparent immortal stamina, although she knew that when her friend did inevitably crash she had a tendency to crash hard and fast on anyone and anything. Most notably doing an impressive swoop from upright to almost knocking Ryan off his seat  at the breakfast table one morning.

‘Do you really think you’ll be able to get her ship working again?’ Yaz asked softly.

‘Probably, I’m good at fixing things and ships are my speciality,’ the Doctor replied. She looked grey and unwell and Yaz carefully maneuvered them into a more comfortable position, the Doctor tentatively resting her head on Yaz’s shoulder as though she was worried she’d be pushed off.

Instead, of course, Yaz only held her tighter.

‘I’m not sure the TARDIS would agree with that statement,’ she said with a smile, and the Doctor laughed and then winched as the pain in her head came back with a vengeance, sliding blues and greens across her vision as she closed her eyes and tried to ignore it.

She felt Yaz nuzzling lightly at the top of her head in comfort and felt a confused, uncertain feeling begin to coil inside her at the sensation. Yaz was holding her carefully and she was warm and soft and gentle. The Doctor felt bliss at the sensation of being held and this confused her. She loved a good hug, even as Eyebrows she’d started to appreciate them come the end, but she didn't remember ever feeling like this when she was hugged. Except, of course, when she’d hugged -

River.

_Shit._

The Doctor felt her hearts beat a little faster in her chest at the sudden realisation. Even through the fog and confusion in her mind she was suddenly seeing clearer than she had for a long time. There was a reason she loved being around Yaz, loved talking to Yaz and experiencing new planets and places with Yaz that was _so different_ to the way she felt about Ryan and Graham. It just hadn’t been clear to her before this moment, but being held by the woman of her affections had jump-started something in the Doctor that had lain dormant for a long time.

Because that’s what Yaz was, to use an old fashioned term. A woman of her affections.

The Doctor was in love with Yaz.

She was half in a panic and half desperately trying to obey the sweet call of sleep that was trying to drag her beneath its soothing waters. Yaz was still and silent beside her and the only sound came from the noise of the birds outside and the distance murmur of voices from the streets. But she had to _know._

The Doctor shuffled carefully against Yaz so her head was pressed against the younger woman’s chest and she could hear the gentle _thump thump_ of her heart. Tentatively, and as innocently as she could manage, the Doctor tucked an arm across Yaz’s waist and pulled her a little closer, ignoring the way her own body lit up as she did so.

_Thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump._

The change in rhythm was immediately noticeable and the Doctor knew her suspicions to be true without a shadow of a doubt. If the acceleration of Yaz’s heart rate wasn’t enough then the gentle intake of breath she’d heard from the other woman only confirmed the truth.

Yaz was in love with her too.

‘Are you okay?’ Yaz said gently, uncertainly, and then there was a hand in her hair and the Doctor practically purred at the sensation, allowing her eyes to finally close and giving herself over to the soothing sensations as sleep called to her again.

She felt Yaz smile but she may have imagined the feather-light kiss pressed against her temple, although she hoped it was real.

_I’m in love with Yaz._

The thought didn't frighten her as much as she thought it would, although that could be partly related to the head injury in correlation with the truly epic amounts of comfort she was receiving right now.

_And Yaz is in love with me._

There would be plenty of time to contemplate - and panic about - this sudden realisation later, but for now the Doctor allowed herself to be carried away in the sensations and soon she was fast asleep. 

* * *

Yaz had heard the term ‘gay panic’ for the first time at primary school, but had never really understood what it meant until this moment.

The Doctor was asleep, breathing softly against her skin and, instead of joining her because she was certainly tired enough, all Yaz could think was _aaaaaaaaaah_ because the _Doctor_ had sNuggLEd hEr.

Forget gay panic, Yaz was in full blown existential crisis mode.

She’d spent _weeks_ trying to keep her emotions in check, every second she’d spent around the Doctor she’d tried so hard to not give anything away or let slip how she really felt about this mad, incredible, _beautiful_ woman who’d dropped from the sky but now those carefully constructed barriers and walls were falling down and Yaz wasn’t sure she could keep it a secret any longer.

She was in love with the Doctor and she didn't want to hide her feelings anymore.

The Doctor stirred against her, as though she knew what she was thinking, but she settled quickly and Yaz stared up at the ceiling, a hand in her friend’s hair gently playing with the soft blonde strands as she considered what to do next.

She could tell the Doctor how she felt and risk the possibility of rejection, or she could stay quiet and be miserable for the rest of her time on the TARDIS, never knowing, always wondering what could have been.

Yaz could feel her thoughts spiralling and her chest was starting to feel tighter and tighter as the familiar sensations of a panic attack began to build up inside her. She clenched the blankets as tightly as she could in her free hand as she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to breathe through the anxiety through gritted teeth. Her lungs burned as she forgot to breathe in a steady rhythm and she could feel her heart thumping widely in her chest, beating quick and out of rhythm.

 _Not now, not now, not now._  

And then there was a soft hand on her forehead and when she opened her eyes she saw the Doctor looking up at her.

‘Relax,’ her friend said gently, and the effect was immediate. Yaz’s whole body practically sank into the mattress as her muscles un-tensed and her diaphragm relaxed allowing cool, fresh air to fill her burning lungs. She let out a choked sob she hadn’t realised she’d been keeping in and the Doctor switched their positions so the blonde was holding her instead of the other way around and Yaz clung to her tightly, pressing her face into the Doctor’s neck and tightly gripping the fabric of her chiton.

‘How did you do that?’ Yaz asked a few seconds later, once the pounding of her heart was slowing and she could feel the anxiety draining away from her.

‘Weren’t you listening?’ the Doctor teased, stroking Yaz’s hair. ‘It’s like I said to hologram-Athena, my people are more touchy-feely.’

‘Wait,’ Yaz said, sitting up to look at her. ‘You can control people by touching them?’

The Doctor made a face. ‘Not “control” so much, but I can manipulate emotions and shuffle things around in people’s heads. I don’t, for obvious reasons, but I can. I can also sense people’s emotions, especially if I’m touching them, which is what woke me up.’ She tilted her head at Yaz inquisitively, although her eyes were soft. ‘Do you want to tell me what was worrying you?’ she asked softly, and Yaz shook her head.

‘Not right now,’ Yaz said quietly. ‘I will at some point. I think I need to, if I’m being honest, but not now.’

‘Whenever you’re ready,’ the Doctor said gently, and she pulled Yaz back down again so she could hold her tightly. ‘I don’t ever want you to think you have to hide things from me, okay?’

‘You may regret saying that,’ Yaz whispered, and the Doctor kissed her forehead.

‘No, Yaz. I don’t think I will.’

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I WILL NEVER STOP USING THE TOUCH TELEPATHY TROPE.


	7. Bath tub confessionals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (you may notice I upped the rating. Don't look at me, Yaz and the Doctor started it!)
> 
> This chapter has softness AND action! Enjoy! :D

When Yaz woke up later that day the Doctor was already awake. 

She was sat on the floor of their little room in her underwear doing what looked like a peculiar variation of yoga. The burnt patch on her shoulder was starting to turn brown and she was stood on her head with her legs stretched up in the air, bent at the knees and forming a peculiar diamond shape. Her eyes were closed but the rustling of Yaz moving around in the bed caught her attention and she cracked an eye open and smiled. 

‘Morning! Or afternoon I should say. I think it’s just after 3pm. I should know for certain really shouldn’t I? Call myself a Time Lord and don’t even know what the time is. If my teachers could see me now…’

Yaz yawned and watched her sleepily, not willing to give up her blanket just yet. She could see a bruise blossoming purple and and black on the bare skin of the Doctor’s back, presumably a result of her hitting the pillar at force, and there was dried blood coating the back of her head. She looked a mess, like one of the drunks Yaz regularly saw staggering around Sheffield after the pubs had closed, but her face was calm and she was relaxing to watch.

But also slightly distracting, and Yaz found she couldn’t tear herself away from her legs. 

‘Sleep well?’ the Doctor asked, slowing unbending her legs and stretching them up towards the ceiling, as though she knew Yaz was watching.

‘Yeah,’ Yaz replied, yawning again and snuggling a little further into her blanket. She’d woken up a few times with the Doctor wrapped around her like a cat, and was pleasantly surprised to find that even aliens from outer space liked a good cuddle every now and then. Or maybe she’d been keeping the anxiety at bay. Either way, it was appreciated. 

The Doctor brought herself back down to the ground and sat up with her legs stretched in front of her as she reached for her toes. 

‘I didn't know you did Yoga,’ Yaz said curiously, watching the taut muscles in the Doctor’s bruised back straining as she stretched. 

‘There aren’t many things I haven’t tried,’ the Doctor said with a wink. ‘Apart from stewed pear in puddings.’ She pulled a face. ‘Pears are the worst.’ 

‘How’s your head?’

‘Sore. So’s my back - hence the yoga. Stupid marble pillar.’

She stood up and stretched her arms high above her head, standing on tiptoes, before dropping down and reaching to the ground to touch her toes again. 

There was a knock on the door and Ryan stuck his head round it, immediately squeaking and hiding behind the wood. The Doctor raised an eyebrow in confusion and flung the door open again, seemingly completely unabashed and unashamed about Ryan seeing her in her underwear. It wasn’t even like it was plain underwear either. Her bra was electric pink and her knickers were dotted in colourful polka dots.

Yaz, for her part, was laughing uncontrollably at the expression on Ryan’s face. The poor boy clearly had no idea where to look. 

‘Uh… me and Grandad - I mean Graham - we’re going to go to the baths  and then look around the festival. We were wondering if you guys wanted to come if you and Yaz aren’t… um… busy…?’

‘Busy with what?’ the Doctor asked, confused, and Yaz felt obligated to save Ryan before he died of embarrassment.

‘We’ll be right there,’ she said with a smile, and Ryan nodded gratefully at her and sprinted down the corridor as fast as his legs could carry him.

Yaz clambered out of bed and made to follow him but the Doctor caught her wrist, thumb brushing gently over the skin on the back of her hand. It was such an intimate touch that Yaz felt heat surging through her torso, and when she looked at the Doctor she noticed the other woman’s eyes were soft and warm.

‘Whenever you want to have that chat,’ the Doctor said gently, ‘you just let me know. I mean it, Yaz. I don’t want you to feel like you can’t talk to me about things.  _ Especially  _ when those things affect you that strongly.’

Yaz nodded, squeezed her hand, and slipped out the room to leave the Doctor to get dressed, her head full of soft smiles, lingering warmth, and worry. 

* * *

The Doctor got a few peculiar looks at the baths, possibly because the back of her head and down her neck was still coated in dried blood, but otherwise they were largely left alone again like the day before and Yaz enjoyed the sensation of the warm water on her slightly sunburnt skin. It was quieter today and they mostly had the bath to themselves. Yaz had worried that this would make her feel more self-conscious, but considering the Doctor was currently floating on her back with her eyes closed, naked as the day she was born, Yaz decided she really had no reason to be so shy in front of her friend.

Apart from that one reason that she was still too nervous to bring up. Part of Yaz wished that the Doctor could just read her mind, it would certainly make things easier. 

‘Wait, you can’t read my mind can you?’ Yaz asked suddenly, and the Doctor turned her head to look at her. 

‘I can if I’m touching you, and if you let me,’ she replied. 

Yaz swallowed hard. ‘So, every time we’ve hugged or held hands or whatever, you’ve been…?’

The Doctor’s eyes went wide. ‘Wait, no no no I didn't explain that very well.’

She waded over to Yaz and sat beside her, soft green eyes looking at her in worry. 

‘It’s not like every time I touch you I know what you’re thinking,’ she said. ‘It’s like an on/off switch, I don’t have it running all the time. Sometimes I can sense emotions, particularly if they’re very strong, but usually I don’t get anything at all. I certainly can’t hear your thoughts.’ She held out her hand and smiled softly at Yaz. ‘Do you trust me?’

Yaz could feel her heart leaping into her mouth but she nodded and took the Doctor’s hand, entwining their fingers together. 

‘Right now, I can’t hear or sense anything,’ the Doctor said. ‘And I would never  _ never  _ read your mind or try and sense your feelings without your permission, I promise.’

‘And if I wanted you to?’ Yaz whispered, throat dry.

The Doctor cocked her head curiously at her friend. ‘Then you’d only have to ask,’ she said gently.

Yaz’s heart was beating so fast in her chest that she thought it might fly out of it. She suddenly became acutely aware of how close the Doctor was sitting beside her ( _ naked)  _ and how soft her expression was as she looked at her friend. Yaz could feel that familiar throb of desire between her legs, rising up into her stomach and she found herself unable to stop staring at the Doctor’s lips, so soft and inviting. 

‘Yaz…’ the Doctor whispered, squeezing Yaz’s hand tightly. ‘I’d only ever want you to be honest with me.’

‘I know,’ Yaz replied, and when she met the Doctor’s eyes she saw they were dark and unreadable and yet so full of adoration that Yaz almost couldn’t stand it. She tentatively reached out her hand and found the Doctor’s knee under the water, resting it on top carefully. The Doctor let out a soft gasp but didn't say anything, and she certainly didn't try and move her hand away. 

The bath was empty now apart from the two of them but Yaz didn't notice. She didn't notice the lack of voices around her or the stillness of the water. In that moment it was just her and the Doctor staring at each other, each too afraid to take the first step and yet still utterly devoted to each other. Yaz was sure that in that moment she could ask the Doctor for the stars and the other woman would bend time and space to make it happen.

‘What were you worried about earlier?’ the Doctor whispered, her voice low and husky. ‘You were so frightened about something. Your anxiety woke me up.’

Yaz swallowed and felt a thick ball of worry in her throat. The hand in her own tightened and Yaz found herself leaning a little closer to the Doctor. Or maybe the Doctor was leaning closer to her. It was difficult to tell. 

‘I don’t want to hide myself anymore,’ Yaz said, practically shaking with nerves. ‘I don’t want to ignore my feelings.’

‘Go on…’ the Doctor said, and they leaned forwards a little more towards each other. 

‘I was just so frightened of rejection…’

The Doctor’s hand slid into her hair and Yaz felt she might faint from the intoxicating sensation of the Doctor so close to her, especially considering that - while the water was cloudy and neither of them could see anything - they were both  _ naked  _ and practically pressed against each other’s sides. 

‘Like I would ever reject you,’ the Doctor said with a smile, and then Yaz leaned forwards and closed the gap between the two of them and suddenly it was as though stars were exploding behind her eyelids as they finally,  _ finally,  _ kissed for the first time. 

The Doctor’s mouth under hers was soft and desperate and she had both hands wrapped in Yaz’s hair, pulling her impossibly closer. Yaz found the Doctor’s hips under her fingers and clutched desperately as they moved against each other, practically sat in her lap. This was better than anything she could have imagined, better than anything she  _ had  _ imagined, and when the Doctor’s tongue found its way inside her mouth she found that sliding her hands up the soft, wet skin to gently cup the other woman’s breasts was as easy as breathing. 

The Doctor practically mewled in response and Yaz swung her legs over the Doctor’s so she was straddling her, still kissing her mercilessly as her hands explored all the parts of her that had been off limits before. The ache between her legs was practically burning and when Yaz slid her hand to the same spot on the Doctor’s body the other woman moaned into her mouth and clutched desperately at her. Her fingers moved gently under the water as she slowly dragged her hand up the inside of the other woman’s thighs, and when the Doctor pulled her head away Yaz saw that her eyes were black and she was panting.

‘Do you want me to stop?’ Yaz asked, pausing her movements. She could feel the twin beats of the Doctor’s hearts hammering against her chest and the Doctor’s hand disappeared under the water to take Yaz’s, moving it up to rest gently at the soft tuft of hair between her legs.

‘Don’t you dare,’ came the response, and Yaz immediately bent her head to bite at the Doctor’s neck as she slid her fingers through her folds, the blonde whimpering beneath her. The sound and the feel of her was coursing like a fire through Yaz’s body and when the Doctor reached up a hand to cup her breast she practically pushed her whole body against her, desperate for more.

‘Oh, Yaz,’ the Doctor gasped as Yaz found that small mound between her legs and gently began to move her fingers in circles, kissing and sucking at the Doctor’s neck as the other woman took a nipple between her fingers and tugged at it gently. 

Yaz was just starting to wonder if the Doctor would mind if she moved the hand on her breast to *another* spot in need of attention when suddenly the Doctor’s eyes went wide and she practically flung Yaz off of her. 

‘Wha…?’

The laughter and footsteps of other women echoed in the corridor and Yaz quickly smoothed her hair down, desperately looking for something to cover herself with before she remembered that she was in the bath and nudity was to be expected.

‘Sorry,’ the Doctor whispered as the new group of women stripped and slid under the water, chatting happily to each other. ‘I really didn't want to stop cause that was really,  _ really…’  _ she trailed off and her eyes sparkled.

‘Go on,’ Yaz said, feeling smug. ‘Finish that sentence.’

But the Doctor seemed incapable of doing anything but smile happily at Yaz with a loopy grin on her face and Yaz smiled back at her, feeling happiness spread like a fire in her chest. 

‘I will definitely be wanting to continue this later,’ Yaz said, sneakily putting a hand on the Doctor’s thigh under the water and squeezing gently, trying not to laugh at the lustful expression on the Doctor’s face.

‘With less distractions next time,’ the Doctor said, still grinning loopily. ‘Although the water thing  _ was  _ kind of hot.’ 

‘The TARDIS has a hot tub, right?’ Yaz considered, and then did laugh when the Doctor’s eyes went wide as saucers. 

* * *

Ryan and Graham were both waiting for them in the park when they eventually joined them a short while later, and Ryan gave Yaz a curious look as the two women sat down next to them. The Doctor immediately pounced upon the bag of honey cakes that Graham had bought and Yaz was embarrassed to find her face flushing as Ryan looked at her. At the sight of the rising blush creeping up her cheeks, Ryan’s eyes went wide and he soundlessly pointed between her and the Doctor (the latter and Graham not noticing) until Yaz had enough and batted his hand away, rolling her eyes in annoyance. When she dared to look up at him again he was grinning and nodding suggestively at her, and she couldn’t stop the happy smile creeping onto her face.

Once the sun started to set the four of them went back to the house. Calliope served them another delicious plate of fish and fussed over the Doctor, insisting she take a look at the wound on her head.

The wound that, due to her advanced regenerative healing abilities, had already completely healed over. 

‘I think it just looked worse than it actually was, what with all the blood,’ the Doctor said, as nonchalantly as she could manage, and Calliope looked confused but thankfully didn't press any further. 

After their meal they all went outside and relaxed in the courtyard, the Doctor pointing out the constellations above them, until they heard their hosts go to bed and realised it was safe to sneak out of the house and into the silent streets.

They stuck to the routes they now knew to be relatively unguarded as they clambered silently up the hill towards the Parthenon. They’d arrived earlier than they had the day before, and the guards were still very much patrolling the temple when they got to the top of the hill. Fortunately, a rock thrown down the hill proved to be a good distraction and as the guards scampered after the sound, like a dog chasing a stick, Team TARDIS were easily able to sneak inside. 

‘So I’m guessing the access point to her ship is under the altar, right, Doc?’ Graham asked as the four of them tiptoed inside the temple. 

‘Good guess, Graham,’ the Doctor said, then she grinned. ‘Ooh that was alliterative.’ She crouched in front of the altar and buzzed the sonic along its base, brow furrowed in concentration. ‘If I can just trigger the release catch then we shooould…’

There was a  _ click  _ sound and the lid of the altar disappeared entirely, revealing a set of steps leading down into the darkness. 

‘Perception filter,’ the Doctor said, impressed. ‘The lid was never there, we just thought it was.’

‘Like in the warehouse with Krasko?’ Graham said. 

‘Exactly like that. Ooh she’s good.’

‘I’m guessing we’re going down there then,’ Ryan said, looking nervous. It was pitch black and the stairs seemed to sink into the darkness, no light discernible from the bottom.

‘Oh yes,’ the Doctor said enthusiastically, then she caught Ryan’s expression. ‘You can stay here if you’d rather. We could probably do with a look out.’

Ryan scoffed. ‘And miss exploring a spaceship with you lot? Hell no. Plus, I want to see PC Khan get her torch out again.’

Yaz rolled her eyes. ‘There is nothing wrong with the way I hold my torch,’ she told him crossly.

‘Sure, if you were in an action movie.’

‘My whole life is an action movie,’ the Doctor said with a grin. She rummaged around in her bum bag and pulled out a handful of pocket torches, passing them around between her friends.

‘How on earth did you fit all of that in - no wait, I already know the answer,’ Ryan said. ‘Bigger on the inside, right?’

The Doctor winked at him. 

The thin light of the torch didn't do much to illuminate the suffocating darkness, and the Doctor proceeded carefully as she climbed into the altar and started to edge her way down the steps, soon getting swallowed up by the black.

Yaz, Ryan and Graham crept carefully down the steps after her. They seemed endless and Yaz was starting to get a bit claustrophobic when she suddenly hit a soft, warm body and realised the Doctor had stopped.

‘Sorry, Yaz,’ the Doctor whispered to her. ‘I think we’re at the bottom of the stairs and I’m almost sure I’ve got the control panel under my hands but I’m not entirely sure. Gimme a sec.’

She put her little torch in between her teeth and Yaz saw that she was fiddling with a panel in the wall, wires and switches poking out of it. Something sparked and the Doctor drew her hand back quickly with a yelp, the torch dropping from her mouth and rolling onto the floor, but a few seconds later there was the unmistakable  _ hum  _ of power and lights flickered on around them. 

‘Oh my days,’ Ryan said, gazing around them. 

The ship wasn’t massive, the interior was likely no bigger than the inside of the TARDIS’ console room, but there were panels lining the walls lit up with a strange, alien dialect. The whole thing reminded Ryan of the bridge on one of  _ Star Trek’s  _ ships and a battered console at the front looked up at a huge, cracked windscreen with nothing but dirt outside it. 

The Doctor looked like she’d just woken up on Christmas morning and had been a  _ very  _ good girl that year, leaping from console to console, pressing buttons, tapping screens, and generally having a great time. 

_ It there was ever an image associated with ‘living your best life’, _ Yaz thought,  _ then the Doctor should be the poster girl.  _

‘What we got then, Doc?’ Graham asked. ‘Can you get this thing flying again?’

‘Hmm, not sure,’ the Doctor replied, frowning at a screen and poking at it with the sonic absentmindedly. ‘The engines are pretty knackered and running an incompatible fuel source through them certainly wouldn’t have helped. Plus even if by some miracle I  _ do  _ manage to get the engines going, the vibrations would probably crumble the Parthenon into dust.’ 

‘So that hologram is grounded then?’ Ryan asked, and the Doctor nodded. 

‘I think so. I think her best option is if I downloaded her program and took her back to Bendari in the TARDIS.’

‘So this ship is still under the Parthenon now, in our century?’ Graham asked, eyebrow raised. 

‘Difficult to say,’ the Doctor said, moving her hand in a  _ yes/no  _ gesture. ‘You know I was telling you about fixed points in time? This isn’t one of those. Right now, in this moment, time is in flux and can be altered. Whatever we do now will impact what happens in the future. If I power this ship up and the Parthenon is destroyed then it won’t exist in your future. Or it might do, they may rebuild it, but it won’t be the original. D’you see what I mean?’

‘What I don’t get, Doc,’ Graham said. ‘Is why does the hologram think that human blood is an adequate power source? I mean surely she’s smart enough to know that just because its got iron in it, doesn’t mean it’ll power a spaceship.’ 

‘Look at this place, Graham!’ the Doctor said, spreading her arms wide. ‘It’s damaged! Falling apart! And she’s part of the system, she  _ is  _ the system. She’s damaged, her protocols aren’t working. She doesn’t even understand that what she’s doing is murder because she has no concept of it, she’s just running on her most basic function - get the ship safely home.’ 

‘Can you repair her?’ Ryan asked. ‘If she’s just a program, surely it’s just a case of repairing the base code.’

‘ _ Excellent  _ idea, Ryan,’ the Doctor said with a grin, looking proud. ‘But I think we might have another problem to deal with.’

‘What’s that, Doc?’

‘I’ve not heard from Yaz for a while, have you?’

The three of them turned and looked around the ship. No Yaz. 

‘Where’s she gone?’ Ryan asked. ‘She was right behind us.’

‘Oh no,’ Graham said. ‘You don’t think -?’

But the Doctor was already sprinting up the stairs back towards the temple as fast as her legs could carry her and Ryan and Graham followed behind, tripping and scrambling over the steps as they climbed through the dark. They heard the Doctor reach the top and yell Yaz’s name, panicked, and when they too came out into the dim light of the temple they realised why the Doctor sounded so frightened.

The hologram Athena was back and Yaz was kneeling before the goddess, gazing up at her in adoration. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun DAAAAAAAAAA.


	8. Helpless

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly shorter chapter to further the plot! I think the next one will be the last one :) there will be fluff

‘Yaz…’ Graham’s voice was quiet but he was the only one able to make a sound; Ryan and the Doctor still stood frozen in shock. Graham could see the Doctor’s eyes flicking around the room, looking for an exit or a defence or anything they could use to get out of this mess. Yaz was still and quiet in front of them, kneeling before the goddess with her hair falling across her face. It was difficult to see if she was smiling, but she wasn’t sprouting words of devotion like the man had the night before. Athena had been looking down at Yaz with a hand on the top of her dark head, but when she saw the other three burst up from the belly of her ship her eyes narrowed and she gave the Doctor a curious look. 

‘Don’t antagonise her, don’t rile her up,’ the Doctor whispered quietly to Ryan and Graham, not taking her eyes off of Yaz. ‘Remember, she’s capable of logical thought, we just need to help her see that she’s in the wrong.’ 

‘And if she tries to hurt Yaz?’ Ryan whispered back. ‘You didn't see what she did to that bloke, it wasn’t nice.’ 

The Doctor’s eyes grew dark and, for the first time since travelling with her, the two men felt fear. Not for themselves, but for the hologram and what the Doctor would do to it if she dared lay a finger on their friend. Sometimes it was easy to forget that behind her bubbly and enthusiastic exterior there lived a woman who had experienced more lives, lost more friends and seen more things than they ever would. The Doctor was wonderful yes, but Graham and Ryan had no doubt that she would do whatever it took to protect Yaz, and they wouldn’t like to be the hologram if she dared to stand in her way.

‘Oh, hello again,’ Athena said in that infuriatingly pleasant voice.

‘Hi,’ the Doctor said, as brightly as she could manage, but her eyes were narrowed. She took a small step forwards towards Yaz and the hologram. ‘We’ve just been down to your ship. It’s in a bit of a state.’

‘It was badly damaged when we crash landed,’ Athena replied. ‘I’ve been repairing it.’

‘I could tell, you’ve done a good job.’

The Doctor took another small step forward and looked down at Yaz, but with her hair hanging down it was impossible to see the other woman’s face or to even check if she was okay. 

‘Why Yaz?’ the Doctor asked curiously. ‘In a city of thousands, why did you choose Yaz?’

‘I didn't,’ Athena replied. ‘I don’t choose the fuel source; they come to me. My range used to be further but with the damages the ship has sustained it's usually whoever’s closest to the temple.’

‘Fuel source,’ Ryan muttered darkly behind them. 

‘I think we need to have a chat about that,’ the Doctor said, shooting Ryan a warning look with a clear meaning:

_ Don’t antagonise her. _

‘I require iron to power the ship,’ Athena said. ‘Once I have enough iron, I will be able to leave this planet.’

‘How much iron do you need?’ the Doctor asked.

‘I require 900,000g to reach Bendari,’ Athena said. 

‘How many humans is that, Doc?’ Graham whispered urgently behind her. 

‘A lot,’ the Doctor replied darkly. ‘Thousands of people. More blood than would ever fit in those engines.’ She turned to Athena and took another step forward. She was only a foot away from Yaz now and the hologram flickered and frowned, noticing the rapidly closing distance between the two of them. 

‘You said you thought you could repair my ship,’ the hologram remembered. ‘Now that you’ve been down there, do you still think that?’ 

‘No,’ the Doctor said, as gently as she could manage given the circumstances. ‘The damage is too severe. The iron in human blood isn’t a compatible fuel source for a spaceship and you’ve been eroding and damaging the engines with it. Your ship can’t use blood as fuel, it just doesn’t work and any attempt at moving the ship would put the people of this city at risk from tremors. This whole temple would collapse.’

The hologram flickered again and its expression went dark. 

‘But,’ the Doctor said quickly. ‘I can take you back to Bendari. I have a ship that will take us there. I can download your program and take you home. Just please let Yaz go and stop these killings.’

‘I require fuel,’ Athena said, looking confused. 

‘I know. And I know you’re trying your best,’ the Doctor pleaded with her. ‘You are amazing, really you are. The work you’ve done on your ship, the way your program has adapted and evolved as you’ve learnt. You’re truly a marvel! But your program is corrupted. Your _base_ _code_ is corrupted and it’s impairing your thought processes. The Bendari are a peaceful civilisation. They rely on technological advancements and each other and they certainly don’t condone murder. Please. I can help you. _Let me_ help you.’

There was a moment, a brief second when the Doctor’s words had faded away, that Ryan really thought Athena was going to accept her offer of assistance. She’d let Yaz go, allow herself to be downloaded, then they’d all go off to Bendari happy as Larry and that would be a happy end to the whole affair (aside from the nine dead Athenians).

Except, as so often happened where the Doctor was concerned, Athena did the opposite of this and, with another creepy intonement of ‘I need fuel,’ suddenly the three of them found themselves frozen, suspended in the air as Yaz stood and, with a happy smile, laid down on the altar; the marble slab that served as the hidden entrance to the underground spaceship now visible to them again. 

Ryan couldn’t speak, couldn’t scream, couldn't move. Even breathing was proving difficult and he made gasping noises like a fish out of water, trying to shout a warning, trying to help Yaz, trying to fight the hold the goddess had on him. He could feel her inside his mind like a vice around his brain, squeezing and squeezing and forcing him to do her will. Beside him, Graham looked like he was feeling the same but the Doctor was hanging completely still in the air, her eyes closed and chin tilted towards the floor. For an awful moment Ryan was worried she was dead, but then her head snapped up, her eyes opened and for a split second Ryan could have  _ sworn  _ her irises glowed golden. 

The thick black cables began to snake up from underneath the altar and Ryan tried desperately to free himself from the hologram’s grip, but the more he tried to fight the worse it seemed to be. His lungs burned for air and he felt tears streaming down his cheeks at the helplessness of the situation. The cables punctured Yaz’s neck and his heart hammered in his chest as he tried to scream. He was going to watch one of his oldest friends die in front of him and there was nothing he could do to save her. Yaz’s eyes closed and all he could do was watch as her life was drained away.

Then there was the unmistakable sound of the sonic screwdriver and suddenly the three of them were brought back down to the ground with a bang, hitting the marble floor hard. For a second, all Graham and Ryan could do was lay there winded as they struggled to breathe and when they looked up they saw the Doctor pulling the cables from Yaz’s neck and pointing the sonic at it, the puncture wounds healing over immediately as the cables wriggled back down into the depths of the ship with a sickening  _ schink  _ sound. 

‘Is she okay?’ Ryan gasped, managing to struggle awkwardly to his feet and stumble to his friend.

‘I think so, but she’s lost a lot of blood,’ the Doctor said, scanning Yaz with the sonic and looking worried. 

‘How did you do that?’ the hologram asked. She didn't sound shocked, only confused, and when the Doctor turned to face her Ryan saw her eyes flash golden again for a split second as her expression hardened. 

‘Get Yaz off the altar,’ the Doctor said to Ryan, hands in fists at her sides.

‘What are you going to do?’ he asked, and she gave him a look that he recognised all too well. She’d tried reasoning, she’d tried being kind, but now she had no other option. 

The Doctor straightened up and pointed the sonic at Athena. ‘I warned you,’ she said. ‘No more murders.’

‘You broke free of my connection,’ Athena said, brow furrowed. ‘How?’

‘You gave yourself away,’ the Doctor replied. ‘When you asked me all those questions yesterday. The Bendari have clearly never heard of my people and what we can do. I’m a telepath, a similar science to what you use to control people, although I would  _ never  _ take away someone’s free will the way that you do.’

‘I was in control,’ Athena countered. ‘I could feel your mind. I was in control.’

‘Then what?’ the Doctor asked, still pointing with the sonic, the tip of the screwdriver unwavering.

‘Then I felt this… force. Like an energy. What was that? Explain.’

‘That was my ship,’ the Doctor said, pride in her voice. ‘The very best ship in all the universe. I’m connected with her telepathically, in a similar way to how you’re connected to your ship. Except  _ my  _ ship is a living matrix that happens to like Yaz an awful lot. You mess with me and my fam and she doesn’t like it at all. Now, I am going to give you one last chance. Let me repair your base code and take you back to Bendari, or I will erase you from your ship’s database.’

There was absolute silence in the temple and Ryan and Graham looked at each other. Ryan had lifted Yaz off the altar and was crouched with her in his arms on the floor, Graham fussing over her and trying to find her pulse. She was white and limp and her once peaceful expression had morphed into a frown. 

‘Come on, Yaz, love,’ Graham whispered, shaking her shoulder gently. ‘Open your eyes.’

‘I need fuel,’ Athena said, but she seemed less sure of herself this time.

‘Your primary function is to get your ship home,’ the Doctor said, her voice gentle. ‘I understand that more than anyone, but your ship is broken and it won’t fly no matter how much blood you fill it with. I can take you home in  _ my  _ ship, back to your people. This is your last chance -  _ please.  _ I know you’re capable of reason and logical thought processes. Think my offer through.’

‘Doc, she’s in a bad way,’ Graham said quietly, and the Doctor was instantly at Yaz’s side, fingers pressed against the pulse in her neck. Yaz’s lips were turning blue and she was flopping in Ryan’s arms, mouth slack and completely still. 

‘Come on, Yaz,’ Ryan whispered to her. ‘You’ve been through worse than this.’

‘Doc…’ Graham said quietly, putting his hand on the blonde’s shoulder in comfort as the Doctor concentrated, desperately counting Yaz’s heartbeat, her other hand stroking back the thick black hair from her friend’s face.

‘She’s lost too much blood,’ the Doctor said, her voice thick. ‘She’s dying. But maybe…  _ maybe….’ _

She stood up to face the hologram again. 

‘The blood you take from your victims, does it all get mixed together or is it stored separately?’

The hologram tilted its head at her, intrigued by her question. ‘Initially it’s stored separately so I can determine the levels of iron in each sample to estimate how much I have remaining. Then it gets mixed together to create fuel for the engines.’

‘So Yaz’s blood, the blood you  _ just  _ took from her, is stored in your ship somewhere and hasn’t been tampered with?’ the Doctor said, and Ryan could hear from the tone in her voice that she was just  _ daring  _ to hope that her hunch might be right.

‘That’s correct,’ the hologram said, and the Doctor turned to the two men.

‘We need to get Yaz downstairs,’ she said urgently. ‘I saw a medical area down there. If I can fashion some kind of intravenous giving set out of the equipment then we’ll be able to give Yaz back the blood she lost and save her life.’

‘How are we going to get her down those stairs, Doc?’ Graham said, already on his feet and ready to go.

‘I can transport you down there,’ the hologram said to him, then she turned and looked at the Doctor, nodding at her as though in acknowledgement. ‘And then you can take me home to my planet.’

‘Atta girl,’ the Doctor said quietly with a small smile, then her jaw set in determination, she went to roll her sleeves up, realised she didn't have any, and lifted Yaz out of Ryan’s arms instead, the other woman cold and floppy against her. ‘Come on then, you two,’ she said to the two men. ‘Let’s get a shift on.’

Then there was a flash of light, and they were transported back into the ship. 

  
  



	9. Supernova surfing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took me so long to update!! I got super stuck when I was writing it :P 
> 
> I hope this is an okay ending and I'm sorry that I'm really, really bad at ending fics. (LadyBugBear2 this is another one I just can't)
> 
> Thank you SO MUCH to all my regular readers who left the most beautiful encouraging comments on every chapter and to everyone who was just so nice to me while I was writing this 😍😍 if I ever meet you irl I will hug you so freaking hard. 
> 
> Love, kisses, and peace out ✌️

Voices was the first thing that Yaz became aware of, the comfortable lull of sleep already trying to pull her back under as she started to make out the muffled sounds of her friends talking around her. The whirr of the sonic screwdriver was sounding from somewhere to her left and she heard the Doctor muffle a swear word as something sparked and fizzed, a soft surface humming and vibrating gently beneath her. 

‘Not going well then, Doc?’ Graham said from somewhere next to her, and Yaz realised that there was a hand squeezing hers tightly, the callouses on the skin telling her it was probably Ryan’s. She heard his soft chuckle at some unseen expression, probably one of indignation on the Doctor's face. 

‘It’s going fine,’ the Doctor replied, but her tone implied that it probably wasn’t and she just didn't want to admit it. 

Yaz opened her eyes and for a moment everything was just a grey blur above her, but then Ryan’s face popped into view and her eyesight began to focus on the soft features of his face. 

‘Oh hey, back with us?’ he said cheerfully, and Yaz frowned. Her memories were a blur in her mind and she couldn’t work out where she was. The vibrations beneath her made her think it was the TARDIS but the ceiling was all wrong and the lighting was too harsh and bright, nothing like the soft glow she was used to. 

‘Yaz?’

The Doctor leaned over her and smiled, her eyes bright and beautiful. Her face and chiton were streaked in oil and dirt and Yaz leaned carefully against her as she was assisted into a seating position, a sudden head rush almost sending her crashing back down onto the cot. 

‘Where am I?’ she mumbled, head pressed against the Doctor's chest. A soft hand that she assumed was Ryan’s was on her back, helping her sit upright. 

‘We’re in the ship,’ Graham said softly. ‘The alien ship. The Doc’s downloading Athena onto a floppy disk.’

‘Again, it’s not a floppy disk,’ the Doctor said, and Yaz could practically hear the eye roll in her voice. ‘Although it might as well be one, the technology is super outdated.’ 

‘What happened?’ Yaz asked, blinking up at her friends. ‘I remember being in the ship with you guys and then…’ she frowned but couldn’t remember anything further. It felt as though there was a mental block in her mind shutting her out of her own memories and pushing against it only made her headache worsen. 

‘Maybe not think about that for the time being,’ Graham said carefully. ‘You’re safe now, that’s what matters.’

Something thin and plastic caught in her fingers and Yaz looked down, realising with horror that there was a small cannula in her hand pumping a thick red liquid into her veins.

‘It’s alright, Yaz,’ the Doctor said soothingly, putting her hand over the cannula before Yaz ripped it out from under her skin. ‘You lost a lot of blood, we’re transfusing it back to you. You’re probably feeling a bit woozy, yeah? Don’t worry, that’ll pass. Say “aaaah”.’

Yaz did so and the Doctor popped a sweet into her mouth, the soothing taste of butterscotch landing on her tongue and distracting her attention from the cannula in her hand and the bag of blood hanging beside her. She thought back to the man on the altar only a couple of nights before and immediately put up a hand to her neck to feel for puncture marks, but there was nothing there except smooth skin under her fingertips. The Doctor took her hand and kissed it gently, and Yaz saw nothing but love in her eyes. 

‘I need to carry on downloading Athena,’ the Doctor said, giving her hand a final squeeze. ‘Try and get some rest. We’ll be out of here soon.’

Yaz settled back onto the cot and Graham and Ryan sat around her, relaxing as they watched the Doctor dash around the ship. She was like a miniature tornado, darting from station to station as she soniced this and that, picking up pieces of electrical equipment, frowning at it, then throwing it over her shoulder to land with a  _ clang!  _ on the ground behind her. 

Yaz felt herself drifting as she watched her friend create organised chaos out of different pieces of the ship. It was relaxing to watch her work, the Doctor was truly in her element when building things, and every time Yaz closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again she would find another oil spot on the Doctor’s skin or piece of equipment tucked into a makeshift belt around her waist. 

When Yaz opened her eyes again she felt much better. The woozy feeling had almost completely subsided and she was relieved to find the bag of blood taken down and the cannula removed from her hand, a small pink Powerpuff Girls sticker the only sign that there had ever been one there. She sat up slowly, waiting for the inevitable headrush from lying down so long, but it wasn’t as bad as earlier and she was able to sit on the edge of the bed without assistance, stretching her aching arms high above her head. 

Graham and Ryan were both napping in chairs around her bed, but the Doctor was sat cross legged on the floor in front of a large computer panel, fiddling around with the wires and sonicing things every now and then. She was humming to herself and, with her back to her, Yaz was able to observe her working quietly for a few moments in the peaceful quiet of the ship.

‘I can feel you staring at me,’ the Doctor said softly, and she turned to smile at her friend.

Yaz stood up carefully and went to join her, tucking her blanket around her shoulders as she did so. She sat down at the Doctor’s side and stifled a yawn into the palm of her hand, leaning against the blonde sleepily. 

‘How’s it going?’ she asked. 

‘Athena is downloading now,’ the Doctor replied, pointing towards a screen with a small progress bar creeping across it. ‘Should be finished soon, then we can head back to the TARDIS.’ She turned to face her, and her green eyes were soft and gentle. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Better,’ Yaz said, yawning again. ‘Thanks for rescuing me.’

The Doctor smiled at her. ‘You never need to thank me for that, Yaz. I’m just sorry it happened to you at all.’ Her smile dropped and Yaz pushed herself more firmly against her side. She knew the Doctor would blame herself if Ryan got a splinter from the kitchen table or if a book fell on Graham’s head in the TARDIS library, and what had happened to her was surely dwelling heavily on the other woman’s mind. 

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes as the Doctor finished her work, and Yaz closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth from the Doctor pressed against her. Her mind drifted back to their time in the baths and she found the Doctor’s hand and laced their fingers together, thinking of the feel of their lips pressed together, her breasts under her hands, her breathy moans when she explored her new body and the race of her heart when she realised they’d almost been caught.

There was a hidden meaning in the Doctor's words and the thrill of it made Yaz’s heart race quickly in her chest.

_ Then we can head back to the TARDIS and finish what we started earlier.  _

The Doctor seemed to be thinking the same thing, as her other hand found its way to Yaz’s cheek and she carefully tilted her head so they could kiss, slow and gentle and without the frantic urgency of their earlier intimacy. Her lips were soft under Yaz’s and Yaz brought her hands up to grip her slender arms tightly, still finding it difficult to believe that kissing the Doctor was something she could do now. A familiar heat was starting to pool in her belly and Yaz wished they were alone and could pick up where they’d left off, but the snores of Ryan and Graham in the chairs behind her warned her from going any further. 

The Doctor pulled away when the screen in front of them started to beep quietly and kissed the tip of her nose, giving her hand one last squeeze before re-focusing her attention to the task at hand. Yaz felt giddy again, though in a different way on this occasion, and she sat and watched with a loopy smile on her face, feeling even more excited about finally getting the Doctor alone. There was no question that the woman could kiss, and Yaz was practically shivering with anticipation at finding out what else the Doctor was good at. 

‘Done!’ the Doctor declared, and removed something that really did look an awful lot like a floppy disk from a slot in the screen, dropping it into Yaz’s hands. 

‘Athena is on that?’ Ryan’s voice sounded from behind them, and he peered over the two women to look down at the disk, warm in Yaz’s hands.

‘Yep,’ the Doctor replied, standing up and brushing dirt off her chiton, extending her hand to help Yaz to her feet as well. ‘Corrupted base code and all. Don’t go sticking this into your computer anytime soon.’

‘So that means that this ship really is still there, buried under the Parthenon all those years in the future?’ Graham realised, and the Doctor nodded.

‘Yep. I can’t move it, it would destroy the temple,’ the Doctor said. ‘Best we can do now is power everything off and leave it here to rust. Come on fam, the lighting in here is giving me a headache.’ 

With an arm around Yaz’s waist, the Doctor led them up and out of the ship back into the temple. It was early, and the sun was only a tiny red blip on the horizon, but the four of them were easily able to sneak past the guards who were sitting around the fire and begin the descent back down the hill. 

They walked back to the TARDIS in companionable silence, the Doctor and Ryan taking it in turns to support an exhausted Yaz, and by the time the blue box had come into sight the sun was shining over the city and noises from the people below could be heard carried up on the wind.  

‘What’s the plan then, Doc?’ Graham asked once they were safely inside. ‘We heading off to Bendari?’

‘In a bit,’ the Doctor replied, tucking Yaz under her arm. ‘We’ll probably be on Bendari for a while. I need to have a stern word with the programmers regarding the protocols they have for their holograms. Bedtime first, for all of you. You all look exhausted. Get some sleep, then we’ll head down to the festival to get some food and to say goodbye to Calliope and Alexandros.’

‘Amazing,’ Ryan said, clapping his hands together. ‘I was hoping you’d say that.’

‘Come on, Yaz,’ the Doctor said softly to the other woman, who was slumped so heavily against her that the Doctor thought it would be easier to simply pick her up and carry her before she face-planted the floor. Yaz didn't complain, and she wrapped her arms around the Doctor and pressed her nose against the other woman’s neck, eyes sliding shut as she allowed herself to be carried down the corridor.

The two men went off to their rooms and the Doctor carefully tucked Yaz into her bed, crawling in next to her and pulling her duvet up over the two of them. Yaz had fallen asleep in the Doctor’s arms on the way down the trailing corridors and she wriggled under her blankets, letting out a contented sigh that made the Doctor smile. 

The Doctor looked around Yaz’s room, taking in the little bits and pieces she’d brought with her from the flat to make it more homely. There were photos of her family (including one of her sister!) a house plant, a little tray containing her earrings and a beanbag with a pile of books stacked next to it. Yaz’s jacket was slung over a chair and her laptop was on the desk, humming softly. There was also, the Doctor realised, a photo of her and Yaz dressed in suits pinned to the noticeboard above her bed, grins wide and arms around each other.

If the Doctor was really being honest with herself, that was probably the moment when she first realised that her feelings for Yasmin Khan weren’t completely platonic. They’d been invited to a wedding, one of the Doctor’s old friends, had drank entirely too much psychic alcohol and had danced the night away, eventually passing out on sofas and waking up the next morning with one of the cleaning staff peering down at them, asking if they’d mind moving so she could tidy up. 

The hangovers had been awful, but it had totally been worth it. 

‘You okay?’ mumbled a sleepy voice from beside her, and the Doctor look down to see Yaz blinking up at her, rubbing her eyes. She looked around her little room and her forehead creased. ‘Are we back in the TARDIS?’

‘Don’t you remember?’ the Doctor asked, wriggling down next to her and taking her wrist in her hand, feeling for her pulse.

‘Not really,’ Yaz said with a yawn, using the excuse of having the Doctor closer to burrow further into her. ‘I think you were carrying me at one point?’

The Doctor chuckled and wrapped her arms around Yaz, pulling her against her chest so Yaz could hear her hearts beating through the fabric of her chiton.

Speaking of.

Yaz wriggled herself out of the Doctor’s embrace and pulled her himation and chiton off in one fluid movement over her head, unclipping her bra and leaving her in just her underwear.

‘That’s better,’ she sighed in relief, stretching under the duvet. ‘Wasn’t comfortable to sleep in.’ 

The Doctor had stopped breathing, and it wasn’t until Yaz gently nudged her with her shoulder that she remembered to take in a massive heaving breath and almost choked on air. Yaz was beside herself with laughter and the Doctor could only grin at her loopily, a happy smile on her face.

‘Not going to join me?’ Yaz asked, as innocently as she could, and the Doctor’s clothing was off in an instant and surrendered to the floor as the other woman pressed herself against Yaz and kissed her ferociously, hands on her waist pushing her back against the mattress as the Doctor rolled on top of her. 

Yaz could only hum happily and reach up to tangle her fingers in the Doctor’s messy hair, the feeling of their naked torsos pressing against each other coursing like fire through her veins. She hooked her fingers around the elastic of the Doctor’s underwear, more than ready for more, but the Doctor caught her fingers and pushed her arms carefully to her sides.

‘I feel fine!’ Yaz complained, embarrassed to find her voice came out more as a whine.

The Doctor grinned. ‘That’s good, but I’m exhausted.’ 

She flopped onto Yaz, the entirety of her weight pinning her to the bed as Yaz laughed and spluttered blonde strands of hair off her face. 

‘How are you tired? You’re never tired!’

‘Mentally tired, maybe,’ the Doctor yawned, rolling off of Yaz and pulling her close. She pressed her head against Yaz’s neck and sighed happily, tracing circles on her hip with the tips of her fingers. ‘I had to translate the Bendarian language when I was downloading Athena. The TARDIS is good but she struggles with number sequences sometimes.’

‘Hmm.’ 

Yaz wriggled in closer to the other woman and wrapped her arms around her waist, closing her eyes and listening to the sound of the Doctor breathing quietly as she fell asleep, the lights dimming above their heads. It was calm and peaceful in her room, though she could hear the sound of Ryan snoring away further down the corridor, and the Doctor was warm and heavy in her arms. She still couldn’t remember exactly what had happened to her or how Athena had managed to enchant her, but she was grateful she hadn’t ended up like the others; a body on the hillside. 

The Doctor mumbled something, pressed her nose into Yaz’s neck and settled again with a slight twitch of her limbs. She looked so peaceful asleep, nothing like the whirlwind she was when awake and Yaz stroked her hair gently, running the soft strands through her fingers and curling around her until she drifted off too, lulled to sleep by the sound of the other woman’s soft breaths and the arm still slung over her hip, like an anchor keeping her close. 

* * *

The Bendari homeworld was a vast shining landscape full of glass skyscrapers and high-rises. The sky was a deep grey and, to Ryan’s utter delight, hovercars drifted through the air around the city. The ground was completely free of any form of transportation and Ryan was so busy staring up that he walked straight into the woman in front of him, not noticing she’d stopped.

‘Sorry!’ he stammered as Graham dragged him away when he found himself staring at her. The Bendari people were humanoid in shape, but their heads were pointed and elongated and they had four eyes that blinked like a spiders, grey skin and slits for noses on their thin faces. 

‘Do you actually know where you’re going, Doc?’ Graham asked, the three humans falling in behind her, now back in their normal outfits and full of the sweet cakes Calliope and Alexandros had plied them with when they’d gone to say goodbye to their hosts. 

‘Not really,’ the Doctor said cheerfully, hands shoved in her pockets. ‘I’ve been here before but it was years ago, the city was nowhere near as big as this. Pretty though, isn’t it?’

Yaz was walking close by her side, and the two men didn't miss the way her hand kept brushing with the Doctor's as they walked together. They also didn't miss how the Doctor let it happen and they grinned at each other. 

Eventually, the four of them arrived at a tower with a logo on it that the Doctor recognised from the Bendari ship. After explaining why they were there to a bored looking receptionist, they were shown to a waiting room and asked to wait for a representative. 

‘Like my dental practice in here,’ Graham grumbled, taking in the fish tank in the corner, the water dispenser that served something that looked decidedly brown and undrinkable, and the magazines on the small coffee table. 

‘I miss those whirly things,’ the Doctor complained, flipping through a copy of  _ Hovercraft Today! _

‘What whirly things?’ Yaz asked. 

‘You know, with the metal stick that’s bent into different shapes and you have to push the little wooden circles around it.’

‘I honestly have no idea what you’re on about,’ Yaz said, looking confused.

‘Ah man, I think I do,’ Ryan suddenly realised. ‘Sort of like a rollercoaster?’

‘Yes!’ the Doctor exclaimed excitedly. ‘That thing. Whatever it’s called. I think I’ve got one in the TARDIS somewhere, I’ll try and dig it up later.’ 

The door opened and a Bendarian stepped through. He was tall and looked agitated, thin fingers clasped in front of the long white lab coat he was wearing, grey skin paler than his compatriots. 

‘I’m Crexit,’ he chirped nervously. ‘I hear you’ve recovered one of our holograms?’

‘Yep,’ the Doctor said, popping the ‘p’ and withdrawing the disk containing Athena from her pocket. ‘And we need to have a serious chat about protocols.’

* * *

‘A bead maze!’ Graham exclaimed when the Doctor appeared with one later that evening, the toy held triumphantly in her grasp. She floated up to the roof of the TARDIS to join the others and put her sunglasses back on, leaving the toy in the center of the roof for Ryan to immediately pounce on.

‘Is that what they’re called? I think I prefer whirly thing,’ the Doctor said, grabbing a handful of popcorn from the bucket Yaz was holding on her lap.

The supernova in front of them sent out another jolt of radiation that made the blue box shudder slightly, but the Doctor seemed certain that they were at a safe distance and weren’t at risk of getting blown up along with the star. Graham was dying for an opportunity to say ‘I told you so’, but that probably wouldn’t happen if he actually died. 

‘What did you say to Crexit in the end, Doc?’ he asked. ‘He looked terrified when you came back out.’

The Doctor had gone off to speak with Crexit alone, leaving the three humans to entertain themselves in the small waiting room while they waited for her to come back. Ryan was in the midst of trying to convince the fish to race each other, and Graham was having a nap on the sofa, when the two of them had returned, Crexit practically falling to his feet in front of Yaz and jabbering something in his language that was too quick for the TARDIS circuits to translate. 

‘That tends to happen when you tell an engineer that the hologram he designed has tendencies to turn psychotic and start murdering people,’ the Doctor replied, munching her popcorn. ‘Not that he personally designed it of course. Athena was over 300 years old, it’s not really surprising her program degraded, but they’re still using a similar system.’

‘What about the ship?’ Ryan asked, still playing with the bead maze. ‘Did he want to retrieve it?’ 

‘He did, but I talked him out of it,’ the Doctor replied. ‘It’s not safe to try and retrieve that ship now. Better to leave it where it is.’ 

‘So, I’ve been wondering,’ Yaz said, snapping a quick picture of the Doctor and Ryan posing in front of the supernova, the Doctor’s hair floating in the air. ‘How did the hologram know to disguise herself as the goddess Athena? If the ship was that badly damaged, how would she have known that would be a form the Athenians would accept?’

‘Weeeeeeeeell,’ the Doctor said, looking slightly guilty, and Graham knew her answer wasn’t going to be good. ‘It’s difficult to say really. Which came first? The hologram or the goddess?’

‘Wait,’ Graham said, suddenly catching her meaning. ‘Are you saying that the only reason Athena exists in mythology today is because the hologram created her?’

The Doctor looked uncomfortable, but Ryan was loving it. 

‘Is that where gods and goddesses come from, then?’ he asked, a huge grin on his face. ‘Alien holograms crash landing and accidentally inventing a whole belief system?’

‘I couldn’t tell you,’ the Doctor said honestly. ‘I have a feeling that the hologram  _ didn't  _ create Athena, or the perception of her, and that the only reason she took that form was because she saw the statue of her at the temple but likewise…’

‘The Athenians could have built the statue because  _ they  _ saw the hologram,’ Yaz realised. She shook her head. ‘Oh man, that’s confusing.’

‘Best not to think about it,’ the Doctor said, patting her knee.

‘We could go back and find out though, right?’ Ryan asked. 

‘Best not,’ the Doctor said. ‘I wouldn’t want the timestreams getting mixed up. Paradoxes are not to be messed with.’

In front of them, the star exploded. 

‘Hold on tight!’ the Doctor yelled, and the four of them gripped the roof of the TARDIS as a shockwave smacked into them, the TARDIS riding it further and further away from the supernova as the remnants of the star swirled around them, gas and dust causing the most incredible patterns around them.

‘THIS IS AWESOME!’ Ryan yelled. He wasn’t the best at surfing, had only tried it a couple of times before declaring it way too dangerous for a kid with dyspraxia, but  _ cosmic  _ surfing he could get behind and the Doctor whooped loudly as the TARDIS spun through space, its roof light spiraling blue through their visions. 

‘Okay, that was pretty incredible,’ Graham admitted once the TARDIS had stopped spinning and they were all gasping for breath, happy loopy grins on their faces. 

‘Didn't I say so?’ the Doctor said, beaming. ‘I did. I did say so. Tell him I said so, Yaz.’

‘She did say so,’ Yaz told Graham, unable to stop smiling though she knew her hair was an utter haystack at that moment. 

‘Right, the TARDIS should have gotten a bit of an energy boost from that,’ the Doctor said, patting the wood of her ship fondly. ‘She loves a bit of supernova energy. Who wants to do something really reckless and fly her through a meteor shower?’

‘Yes!’ 

Ryan was already pushing himself down the outside of the box to get back into the console room, Graham close behind him, but the Doctor waited and kissed Yaz so passionately that she could have sworn she forgot her own name for a few moments.

‘What was that for?’ Yaz asked, breathless when she’d finally pulled away. 

‘You were shining,’ the Doctor replied, a happy smile on her face. 

‘Was I?’

‘Metaphorically, not literally. When we were surfing, your eyes were shining.’

Yaz kissed her again, gripping her braces tightly to pull their lips together. 

‘Maybe that’s just the effect you have on me.’

‘Oooh that was smooth.’

‘Unlike the driving we’re about to experience.’

The Doctor grinned widely, and she looked so happy that Yaz was sure this moment was going to be seared onto her brain for the rest of her life. 

‘I thought you liked it when I rocked your world?’

‘Metaphorically, not literally,’ Yaz quoted back at her. ‘Although I’m pretty sure you mentioned something about a hot tub earlier?’

The Doctor’s eyes darkened and when she kissed her this time her hands started to roam a little more. Yaz’s hands gripped her arms as the Doctor pushed her back against the roof and she was just starting to slide her braces from her shoulders when Graham’s voice brought them quickly back to reality and she remembered where they were.

‘We’re coming!’ Yaz yelled down to him.

‘That’s the idea,’ the Doctor whispered with a wink and a nip to Yaz’s neck that made her squeak. 

‘Oh, wait,’ Yaz said suddenly, sitting up and grabbing the Doctor’s hand before she could start her descent back into the TARDIS. The Doctor looked at her expectantly, and Yaz quickly fixed her hair and pulled her braces back up. ‘I have a request for, well, you know,’ Yaz started awkwardly with a shy smile.

The Doctor tucked a long dark strand of hair behind Yaz’s ear and tilted her head expectantly at her.

‘What’s the request?’ she asked, smiling wickedly. 

‘When we’re alone -’ Yaz said, suddenly feeling emboldened at the realisation that this amazing, wonderful, alien woman  _ wanted her.  _ ‘- wear the chiton. With nothing underneath.’ 

The Doctor’s eyes widened, as did her sultry smile. 

‘Yes, ma’am,’ she said and, with one quick peck to Yaz’s cheek, she was back inside the box, and Yaz followed soon afterwards trying in vain to ignore the blush spreading up her cheeks, or the warmth spreading through her chest.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continuing the 'I DON'T KNOW HOW TO END FICS' trope. 
> 
> Also I couldn't remember what the bead maze was called either so I literally googled 'rollercoaster toy for toddlers' and up it came! They have them at every GP surgery, dental practice and family friend restaurant across the UK and you are NEVER too old to play with one. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it!! Everyone should go to Athens if you get the chance it is such a beautiful city ❤️
> 
> Extra thank yous to everyone who left such lovely comments and to the amazing Ginoodle for her Doctor-in-a-chiton drawing and her encyclopedic knowledge about all things Ancient Greece ❤️❤️
> 
> Love to everyone!! ❤️❤️

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment if you liked it! (Or if I got anything historical drastically wrong)


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